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| ULB elections - qualified and experienced campaign for undeserving contestants | | | Jamwal Mahadeep Singh | 9/26/2018 10:28:43 PM |
| The hardest thing about any campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning. Is it the destiny of our system that qualified, experienced and much deserving class of the society campaign to register win of the much un-deserving and illiterate contestants only for the reason that the candidate is the nominee of some political party in the forth coming Urban Local Body elections. I hold this particular class of the society, as most visionless class and I hold them responsible for spoiling our democratic institutions and such people are road blocks for keeping basic needs out of the reach of the general mass. It is the contribution of these literate but visionless market players in making institutions of Municipal Corporations, Municipal Councils and Municipal Committees as dumping grounds with un-deserving stuff. Mostly it is this class of literate society that is most dangerous and harmful and that works for political parties and players without utilizing their own capabilities and push the dictates of politicians who never want some literate, qualified, visionary person possessing the courage and likely to put a challenge to these political parties to be on board, who dare to expose the misdeeds. Politicians never want a bold voice that musters courage to put challenges to these politicians as standing figure before them but they look for only stooges, blind follower, and those dancing to their tunes and it is one of the most fundamental part of their daily planning and daily lives, something they have probably taken for granted. A large percentage of such politically thrusted candidates are illiterates or near illiterates almost wholly isolated from the world of ideas, development and progress and such candidates are love birds of these political parties whereas they always feel irritated from someone challenging their qualities. When I think of this situation a story hit into my mind told to me by someone that during Late Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad (served as the Deputy Prime Minister of the State of Jammu and Kashmir between 1947-1953, and as the Prime Minister of the from 1953 to 1964) era, one most illiterate Minister 'Mr. Sogami" was asked by someone 'How are you Mr. Sogami" and he replied "Bakshi Sahib ki Meharbani" and also in much resonance that one of the MLA used the refrigerator as shoe rack. So what we are envisioning in coming formation of these Local bodies is going to be a combination of representatives like that of Mr. Sogami and MLA using refrigerator as shoe rack.
The hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning. In such a campaign a group accompanying a candidate came to my residence appealing to vote and support their contesting candidate, a nominee of a political party and moreover candidate from my next street, having a very low profile and non deserving candidature. The candidate just posing as a statue was much appreciated by the campaigning party as most deserving one. I just casually asked one question, 'who has to sit as councilor in Municipal council whether winning candidate or you people, speaking on his behalf. Who has to interact with district administration, which has to project, discuss and convince the bureaucrats, a fraternity of IAS qualifiers, the cream of the country and what qualification and experience your contestant possess? No reply. We enjoyed a cup of tea and the campaigning party just smilingly replied you are absolutely correct. This was my way of changing the prevailing concept of projecting undeserving contestants. Why can't every voter, every common man ask the similar question and I am sure none will dare to project and propagate a non deserving contestant. We have to behave like an editor of a publishing house, who separates the wheat from the chaff and then prints the chaff, while projecting candidates for any contest and before taking up campaign for the candidate.
Voting is how we participate in a civic society - be it for president, be it for a municipal election. Elections remind us not only of the rights but the responsibilities of citizenship in a democracy. During the election process, the common man (voter) becomes a bambino (baby) for every contestant as most lovable and pretty living object in the society and these contestants behave as all time eager stuff to shower their closeness, emotions and passion. Many carry contrasting gifts of different characterization including cash incentives, bewildering promises, politics of caste, magnitude of relations, exploitation etc. But it is also a reality that elections are also won chiefly because most people vote against somebody rather than for somebody. The most cherished (only during election) subject is the voter that is involved in the process in Parliamentary, Assembly, urban or Pachayat elections, in our system of three tier democratic representations in running the peoples affair. The Parliamentary elections held to run the country, assembly elections to run the states urban elections to run the cities and Panchayat elections at the village level. Easy understanding goes that a candidate elected on party base has no independent thought, vision and performance and fires only those bullets loaded by the party. We can simply say that elections in local bodies do not automatically foster development, but may instead prevent or destroy it.
If we have a visit to The Jammu & Kashmir Municipal Act 2000, we become aware that the Act has shouldered some exclusive responsibilities on the body designated as Municipal Committee for small towns, Municipal Council for Medium Towns and Municipal Corporations for Jammu city & Kashmir city. These functions we can enlist as: preparation of plans for economic development, Urban/Town planning, regulation of Municipality land use and construction of buildings, maintenance of roads within its jurisdiction, solid waste management, protection of ecological aspects, safe guarding the interests of weaker sections, slum improvement and its up-gradations, provisioning for urban amenities and facilities such as: parks, gardens and play grounds regulation of amenities such as: street lightening, parking lots, Bus stops and public conveniences, provisioning of burial and cremation grounds, provisioning and maintenance of cattle ponds as well as cruelty to animals, management of slaughter houses, vital statics including registration of birth and death. A close look of all these functions, itself makes a clear picture that there is no space left for staging a political drama in ward elections.
We have to look for strong communication skills with other departments in the person who is to be laden with responsibilities of being representative. This responsibility is not a part time involvement hence we should look for a dedicated person easily available to the person standing last in the queue. There is no end of workday. Education is a key to future. An educated person carries his own respect in the society and being an enlightened soul he is aspiration to one and all. Unless we have an educated person with us we become automatically deprived of many benefits as illiterate has less adoptability and more dependability. |
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