What we would like to see in Election Manifesto 2007

The Indian National Congress was chosen for this analysis as it forms a major part of the Ruling coalition (UPA). This is neither an attempt to glorify or downplay the Manifesto or its implementation.

Indian National Congress Manifesto 2004 (found on their website) has a section on “Defense, National Security and Foreign Policy”. The first line of this section states, “The Congress will ensure that all delays in the modernization of our armed forces are eliminated and that funds budgeted for modernization are, in fact, spent to the fullest.”

This is a rather general statement and not very specific in nature. Can the manifesto have something more specific?

As per this blog entry by Ashish Gupta “We have no centralized database to check the identity of persons detained. This implies that if I detain a suspicious person in Delhi and he says that he belongs to some village Begumangalam in district Nalgonda in AP, I have no way to immediately verify his identity - unlike in the US where a centralized databank will let you check his antecedents in a matter of few seconds.”

So is any political party ready to promise us “We will ensure that a centralized database to check the identity of detained persons will be established before 1st December 2009. This database will at least be accessible at all State capitals and major cities”

If you would like to see this in the election manifesto of a political party please pledge you support by commenting below.

The manifesto Maker - an attempt to get heard

Election promises made by political parties are based on popular demand of the people. In an attempt to make the demands of the people more clear, we take the help of web 2.0. Although it may be argued that the web just represents one side of the digital divide it does represent a significant portion of the country. The ultimate aim is to be able to include all people who are eligible to vote.

Five phases of this program hopes to make the common man heard to the minister to be. Rather than having sweeping general statements that don’t promise anything specific, the promises are to be very specific. If just one of the promises suggested makes it to reality, this program will be a step in the new direction.

A brief outline of the program is given below:

Phase 1:

Allow for the creation of promises by various users. The various promises can be voted for or against by users who are logged in.


Phase 2:

The top promises of utility are selected and sent to registered users via e-mail for voting.


Phase 3:

The various parties and candidates are given a chance to add promises to their manifestos.


Phase 4: (To be completed before the Elections)

The manifestos of various parties are published. Each of the individuals who have voted for or against a promise is notified of the preferences of different parties or candidates.

Phase 5

Performance of elected representatives is monitored. Each promise is checked and the level of fulfillment is analyzed.

We hope to get help from every possible source to make this program a success as it finally hopes to achieve the common good.