U.R. Anantha Murthy in an interview with Vicky Nanjappa of rediff.com and India Abroad:
Q: Do you think we need to introduce a law wherein political parties, which do not live up to the promises that they make in their manifestos, can be sued in the court of law?
A: Remember, this is not a legal matter that can be taken up in a court of law. This should be decided in the peoples’ court. We need to wait patiently for the people to respond. However, in India, the tolerance level is rather high.
Read the full interview: ‘People living in Karnataka should learn Kannada’
churumuri 
Related but somewhat off topic. Gulzar Natarajan has some interesting suggestions about penalties to politicians for not fullfilling their promises:
http://gulzar05.blogspot.com/2007/11/politicians-and-time-frames.html
Excerpts:
“I suggest that every serving politician be registered under the Election Commission (EC) and have an account. It should be made mandatory for all candidates to clearly outline their manifesto in terms of quantified outcomes, rather than mere normative statements. ……
During every election, the outcome achievement account of all candidates should be made public, so that voters make informed choices on each candidate…..
The candidate should have the points added to or deducted from his vote share in each election. The maximum deduction should not exceed 10 or 20% of the votes received by the candidate, so as to ensure that the sanctity of popular voting is not diluted significantly. …”
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You are a what?
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Knowing the speed of our justice system this is what is likely to happen. Lets HDK for false promises by JDS, we could expect an HC order when Nikhil Gowda is 10 years into active politics..
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Idne kannadadaage yolidri. Inglisnage baredre maathra yegyathe sikthaithe anthava?
So URA is a public intellectual. Does that mean that he is constantly hoping for validation from his adoring public? What is a private one?
I am fairly aware of what happens in our naadu. But when did the JDS offer to field URA as its candidate for the Rajya Sabha and he withdraw because Gowda’s party was making nice with the BJP? He did offer to run for the Loksabha against Ananthakumar if neither the JDS or nor the Congress fielded its own candidate. “Madlu namma party serkyali” andru Gowdru. Aa myaage, “Yaarree ivaru Ananthamurthy?” antha avara maga mukmanthri kyolidru. “Ivanu yavonla namage buddhi yolakke?” antha Kiran kyathe maadidlu. “Ayyo angella antheene; aa vayyana puskagagolnella naanu odivni” antha aa yamma aa myaage anthu.
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I haven’t heard of a more stupid idea for more than one reason.
– What if politicians promise something impossible? E.g. BJP promises a temple at Ayodhya while the matter is being sorted out in the legal system.
– Politicians could promise something illegal. E.g. Regularization of all encroached land
– More importantly, an election promise is not meant to be a contract. If it is treated as such with people being able to sue politicians, will the people allow it to go the other way? If politicians DO deliver on promises, can they be allowed to continue in power without coming back to the people? If that isn’t possible, are politicians allowed to sue the people for not voting them back into power especially if they fulfilled all promises?
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All the promises made by the poltical parties are nothing but pious intentions and most of the party leaders and party candidates who contest elections are expected to be aware of the same.
The same is the case with the election manifestos. Who reads them, except the writer and pen pusher who has to write a story? Nobody else.
These are nothing but gimmicks. Read them, grin and forget about it. They are not to be taken seriously
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Why sue them for not fulfilling the promises?
They make promises on many conditions so that they can be broken. If the electorate has not learned that even after 60+ years of independence they do not deserve anything better.
The only promise they keep is that the the ‘sachet’ are delivered without fail with in 48 hours after the polling as any thing given before that may invite the wrath of the election commission.
All their ‘brooms and spatulas’ came to ask for votes in return for these promises, but none couldn’t even help to find the name in the voter’s list, leave alone helping to get the voter’s ID made.
Are any of these candidates getting any sponsorship from the toothpaste companies?
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all political parties meet the promises made by them.
1) 1500Rs for unemployed youth Krisna Govt met. only problem on condition no family is eligible ie yearly income of Rs 2000.00
today for Rs 1.50 /kg of rice it is for the family where the annual income is not bmore than 5000.00 which is yet to be announced
dont worry every promises will be met but conditioned have to be met by the public.
ashwatham hatha ha! (kunjara ha) all are dharrmarajas you see
now it is slogan days wait for implementation days
(kunjara ha will come out
all the best for election profits
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If this was possible, the activist judiciary would have imposed penalties on all political parties by now. For a wild moment let us suppose such a law is imposed –say by the EC , again only supposition–politicians would be clever enough not to make any promises. They would grab the opportunity to dangle all kinds of tempting plans in very general terms, pleading that they cannot reveal all the “fantastic details.” People would be gullible enough to fall for some of them at least.
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URA practices untouchability. He tells you that his ancestors practiced it and that he resents it but the truth is that he himself is not free from practicing political untouchability. That is the most unfortunate part.
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