Perennial Poll Promises

When elections are near , all political parties re-invent themselves by releasing their poll manifestos

Briefly - and as vaguely as possible - listing things they will do if voted to power

But , once in a while , person writing the manifesto gets carried away and ends up promising something " Specific / Time-bound " ( horror of horror ! )

Eg:

The BJP manifesto released on 3rd Dec 2012 , before the Gujarat Assembly election , promised that , if voted to power , BJP government will build for the poor of Gujarat ,

>  50 lakh ( 5 million ) houses in 5 years

     =  10 lakh ( 1 million ) every year

     =   2,739 every day

     =     114 every hour

     =         2 houses every minute  !

Obviously , business-friendly BJP government must have pre-qualified housing construction companies in advance and kept tender documents ready

Or sent out SMS , welcoming TATA / BIRLA / AMBANI / L&T etc to come and set up a dozen factories to mass-produce pre-fabricated houses

Poor people of Gujarat are not bothered with what this promise will cost or how will BJP government raise the money required ( approx Rs 1,00,000 Cr )

They are merely asking :

"   Since we voted you to power for the 4th time , nearly one year will be over on 26th Dec 2013

Where are those 10 lakh houses  ?

When can we move in  ?  "

Do I hear BJP saying :

"  What temerity  !

    How dare you ask such inconvenient question  ?

    And don't ever ask about progress report on our promises to ,

    #   Double electricity production

    #   Double road network

    #   Give jobs to 30 lakh women

    #   Insurance for all

    #   Pure drinking water for all

    #   Irrigating 16 lakh hectares

    #   Take Narmada water to Saurashtra

    #   Build state-wide Wi-Fi Network

    #   Loan guarantees for self employed

    #   Cheap loans to farmers  ............  etc

    Where have we said ,  WHEN  we will do all those things  ?

     Can't you see we are thoroughly  CONSISTENT  in our poll promises  ?

     Haven't we been promising the  SAME  things for the last 13 years  ?

    Can't you wait till 2018 State elections to enable us to re-promise all

    these things - just like Congress promising to abolish poverty for the past

    65 years ? 

    Can't you see we are extremely busy with passing of a lame Lokpal Bill , in connivance with most political parties - after scuttling it in Rajya Sabha , 2 years back by proposing 200 amendments  ?  "

Now please !

Let no one think of filing an RTI application  !

All political parties are unanimous in keeping themselves out of the purview of RTI  !

*   hemen   parekh (  16   Dec   2013   /   Mumbai   )