Election candidates manifesto

STATEMENT OF COMMITMENT

I, (name of candidate), make following statement of commitment:

• That I have offered myself to represent the people of (name of constituency) in Lok Sabha as an official candidate of (name of political party) OR as an independent candidate.
• That I stand committed to the ‘Politics of Service’ and not ‘Politics of Power’.
• That I believe that in parliamentary democracy people elect their representatives and not their rulers.
• That I believe that election is not a battle but only a process for electing peoples’ representatives and should be managed in a transparent manner.
• That I believe that being elected as a representative of people is not an end but only means to serve the people and the country.
• That I believe that India building is a team activity and not the sole prerogative of a few people or a party or parties.
• That I have made all declarations as required under law while filing my nomination.
• That I will abide by the code of conduct and any other guidelines made by Election Commission.
• That I attach great importance to my relationship with other Indians, and I have signed the ‘Manifesto of Relationship’.
• That I will work for continual improvement in day-to-day life of all Indian people.
• That I will always be pro-all and anti-none.
• That I will manage country’s affairs in an effective, efficient and transparent manner.
• That for me duties shall have precedence over rights.That I will be pro-active to peoples’ problems and their solutions.
• That I believe that religion does not need politics but politics should be guided by religion.
• That I believe that religion means truth, non-violence, love, compassion, brotherhood, service, non-discrimination, non-exploitation and respect for each other.
• That I will behave in a disciplined manner in Lok Sabha and elsewhere, and will never create a situation where people electing me as their representative are embarrassed.
• That I will discourage use of such terms which have given a wrong meaning and purpose to democratic institutions, like ‘fighting election’, ‘ruling India’, ‘our rule’.
• That I will use only positive slogans (enclosed).
• That I stand committed to encourage positive vote and discourage negative vote.
• I seek your vote only on my merits and not on the de-merits of other candidates.

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MANIFESTO OF RELATIONSHIP

"I, (name of candidate), a proud citizen of India, declare as under:

• That my mission shall be to ‘bring smile on every face’, and for this I shall work, to my best ability, for continual improvement of day-to-day life of Indian people.
• That for working to fulfill above aim, ‘being in a position of influence or power’ is not a pre-condition.
• That I attach great importance to my relationship with other Indians.
• That I believe that development should be sustainable and such development has no meaning if there is no positive relationship between people.
• That my relationship with all other Indians shall be on three levels – personal, social and national.
• That on personal level the relationship shall be based on the principles of humanity, as I am a human being and so all other Indians.
• That on social level the relationship shall be based on the principles of peaceful co-existence, as I am a part of the Great Indian Society and so all other Indians.
• That on national level the relationship shall be based on the principles of nationalism, as I am a citizen of Great Indian Nation and so all other Indians.
• That my behaviour with all other Indians shall be guided by above principles.
• That my religion, my language, my life-style, my food habits etc., shall be my personal traits.
• That I shall consider religion, language, life-style, food habits etc., of all other Indians as their personal traits, shall respect them and shall never say or do anything which hurt their feelings.
• That all my personal traits shall support and strengthen above three relationships.
• That based on above relationships, I shall work for creation of a class-less all-Indian society where there is no injustice, discrimination and exploitation.

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SOME ELECTION CAMPAIGN SLOGANS

I, (name of candidate), a candidate from (name of constituency) promise that I will use only such slogans, which do not hurt feelings of any one. Some such slogans are:

• "Come & Join Us for Making India A Developed Nation by 2020"
• "You are as Indian as I"
• "Cast a Positive Vote – On Merits of your Choice & not on De-merits of Others"
• "We are Pro-All and Anti-None"
• " Together we manage country’s affairs"
• "We are your representatives, not rulers"
• "We have only one Vote-Bank, All Indian Citizens"
• "Our Vision – Better Life for All"
• "Our Mission - Bring Smile on Every Face"
• "Our approach – Transparent and Friendly"
• "Our Message - Smile, It Connects People"
• Our promise – No Walk-Outs in Next Lok Sabha"
• "We have no arguments with others’ view-points, it is their way of managing country’s affairs"
• "Fruits of sustainable development – equal share for all"

Signature ______________

Name of candidate ____________________

Poliical party/Independent _________________________

Phone _______________

Date __________________

Commitment of Indian Political Paties to Voters

All political paties should:



1. State its vision for ‘Developed India 2020’:




Vision for ‘Developed India 2020’ ‘"Better life for all – Smile on every face"

2. State its agenda for Future Elections
:

Agenda for Future Elections "Sustainable Development and Relationship"

3. State its action plan to achieve vision and agenda
:

Action plan Define ‘Better-life’ as your party sees it. Design & implementation of sustainable development strategies concerning clean air and water, safe food, health care, energy, land use, safe & economic housing, education, safe and economic air/rail/road travel, waste management, equitable distribution of opportunities and development-outputs. Plans should give quantifiable targets to be achieved in a specified time frame with required planning, monitoring, review and correction mechanisms in place. Remember, ‘You can’t manage what you don’t measure’. Elaborate on the concept of relationship between any two Indians.

1. State its approach for managing country’s affairs:

Approach Treat election as a process and manage election campaign in a transparent, positive and decent manner. Declare that being elected as people’s representative is not the ultimate aim but means to achieve the vision. Declare that your party is Pro-all and Anti-none. Help people to cast a positive vote by adopting a positive approach for debate. Talk about yourself, your vision, your plan and your approaches to create confidence in the people. Criticizing others and finding faults with their vision, their plan and their approaches is a negative approach. Do not encourage negative vote.

Petition to all Indian political parties

I have created folloing on-line petition:

"To: All political parties of India

Elections should be used as ‘Change Agents’ for progress and not as ‘Changeovers’ from ‘rule-by-one-group’ to ‘rule-by-another-group’. But political parties have always used it as a tool to rule. Election, which should have been conducted as a process for electing peoples’ representatives in a transparent and decent manner, has been converted in to a war. Political parties are indulging in forming opportunistic alliances to capture votes at any cost and then indulge in anti-people and vulgar power games.

‘Better Life For all’, a NGO, committed to continual improvement of day-to-day life of Indian People and for that purpose providing an e-platform on its portal www.betterlife4all.com, has taken an initiative to form a 'Voters Forum' as a watch-dog for pro-people programmes and policies and any need-based alliances of political parties.

'Voters Forum' has a blog (http://www.votersforum.blogspot.com)and no other structures, no groups, no formal membership and no manipulations. It is an alliance of peoples’ vision, their agenda for proper governance of the nation, their ideas of ‘Better-life’, their resolve to protect their right to cast a positive vote in elections, their right to be represented and not to be ruled. The purpose of the forum is to create a synergic thought movement where every voter will ask parties and candidates to sign a ‘Statement of Commitment’ and a ‘Manifesto of Relationship’ to protect interests of the people.

'Voters Forum' has prepared a ‘Statement of Commitment’ to be signed by all political parties and candidates who wish to represent the people in future elections. It has also prepared a ‘Manifesto of Relationship’ between any two Indians, which should also be signed by all candidates, if they want to be elected as a representative of the people.

President’s vision for Indian Nation gives the people a ray of hope. But with every passing day this ray of hope is loosing its brightness. It is unfortunate that so far no political party has clearly stated its vision, action plan and approaches for the "Developed India 2020" and how fast it can realize these missions in quality and quantity. The only vision Indian political parties seem to have to somehow capture power, and for this they are stooping to such depths that their behaviour has become vulgar and insulting to Indian voters.

To protect voters’ right to be represented by honest, sincere and committed people this petition has been prepared to be submitted to all those who have a stake in coming elections - Political alliance which has been managing the affairs of the country for last many years, Political alliances who wish to manage the affairs of the country for next many years, Election commission, Media and Voters.

Each political party should:

- State its vision for ‘Developed India 2020’:

- State its agenda for future elections:

- State its action plan to achieve vision and agenda:

- State its approach for managing country’s affairs:

- Sign Statement of commitment for above;

- Sign Manifesto of Relationship with all Indians;

- Use only positive slogans"

Please visit the link and sign the petition - http://www.petitiononline.com/Plusvote/petition.html

Why we elect our representatives?

When we elect someone and give him the responsibility of representing us and power for governance, what actually we elect in him? Is it his moral, his ethical behaviour, his love and concern for the people and the nation, his ability to govern, his sincerity and honesty? My answer is 'Yes' to all.

Also when we elect someone, do we take into account, which religion he belongs to, what language he speaks, what clothes he wears, what food he eats? My answer is 'No' to all. These are peoples' personal traits. We expect that these personal traits will help our representative in better governance and not come in its way.

For us, the end result is most important. Our Representative should work in the interest of the people, society and nation. He should take all the people with him. He might have belonged to a particular party or group but after getting elected he represents all. He might face different interpretations of peoples' needs, law of the land and other do's & don'ts, but I believe if he has honest intentions to serve the people he will not find any problem with different interpretations. Honest debate is essential to honest governance, and he should participate in the debate in an honest, sincere and graceful manner. Any concession needed should be seen and given by him in the form of empowerment. It should not be given for covering an handicap, but should be given to convert the handicap in to strength.

(I have used the word 'him', but it includes 'her' also)

Rights of a voter

Friends, I wrote my first message on duties of a voter, as I believe that people should first discharge their duties and then talk of their rights. I hope you agree with me.

Right to vote means that every voter has a right to elect a representative of his or her choice. This right is absolute and should not be curtailed or denied by anybody under any circumstances. But policy of reservation has curtailed this right. The constituency where I vote has been reserved for SC/ST/OBC. Now I have to choose my representative from these communities only. There are good people belonging to non-reserved community but they can not contest the election and I can not exercise my vote in their favour.

To exercise my right to vote it is essential that my name should be in the voters list. Here again, due to inefficiency of EC officials and manipulation by politicians names of a large number of voters are made to disappear from voters list. Then bogus voting is yet another factor which violates my right to vote. Forcing not to vote by creating fear of violence in elections is yet another factor.

The Government and EC have a duty to ensure that people exercise their right to vote without any fear and in a free environment.

Duties of a voter

The first and foremost Duty of a voter is to cast his vote. Let us not be guided by others who do not find any thing worthwhile in electing same dirty politicians again and again. The time has come when people should take their own decisions and stop being guided by others' opinions.

The second duty of a voter is to cast a positive vote. A voter should vote for a person on his or her merits. Voting for someone because he or she belongs to a particular religion, caste, place, language etc is a negative vote. Voting for someone simply because a voter is not happy with other candidates is also a negative vote. I prefer making my vote invalid rather than casting a negative vote.

The third duty of a voter is to express appreciation when the elected representative performs the job well. But the voter should also express dissatisfaction when the elected representative does not perform the job well. In case of undignified conduct of the elected representative the voter should express personal indignation and ask him to tender an apology. The voter should clearly tell the elected representative that his action should not embarrass the voters.