Let's make elections manifesto-mukt

In the run-up to Lok Sabha elections, political parties have been releasing their manifestos. In these times of 24x7 communication, such 'letters of intent' and 'MoUs' are, at best, twee and redundant, at worst, distractions and obfuscations. They serve little in influencing public opinion and voter response. So, parties, why don't you just do away with them?

Decision to support a party or politician is multipronged, often influenced by factors such as performance of incumbents, local issues and collective interests of communities. Manifestoes hardly get into such granular practicalities. Two, manifestoes reflect intentions, which is different from concrete policymaking. This disjunction undermines the credibility of manifestoes as reliable indicators of future governance providing a false correlation. In any case, political parties in India are not legally committed to fulfil their manifesto promises. Three, parties utilise media - social and otherwise - through the year to engage with supporters. So, manifestoes are really akin to telephone directories in the mobile age. Four, in an age of info overload, voters don't need an anachronistic source of further engagement. Finally, studies show that in advanced economies, rate of fulfilment of manifesto promises is as high as 82% over an average of four elections. In India, such slicing and dicing of data on promises made and promises delivered is hardly done.

Effectiveness of manifestoes in influencing voter behaviour and shaping governance - always in doubt anyway - has dwindled to the point of redundancy. It's time to stick to more immediate forms of engagement that have more bearing on voters' wish lists and the electoral contest at hand. So, why go through the manifesto motions?