BENGALURU : It’s election time, and one is reminded about the classical Sound of Music song about Maria – ‘how do you solve a problem like Maria, how do you catch a cloud and pin it down …… how to make her stay and listen to all you say…’. This could well be the case with our MLA candidates. How do we get them to commit and be held accountable when they are the masters of double speak and evaders of responsibility?This week, the suspense about candidates is over, and they will get down to the business of campaigning.
The Resident Welfare Associations (RWA), Bengaluru Apartment Federation (BAF), Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB), TV channels and print media are trying to pin the candidates down on their promises. Traditionally, candidates have got away without making firm commitments. This time, too, we are likely to witness generic promises, blaming the other party and talking down the clock rather than give direct answers. Is there any way to pin them down?
We need citizen groups to get more innovative about pinning the candidates down to specifics. For instance, a RWA group could identify the top 10 specific concerns in their areas. These could be around issues such as whether they will join residents in the courts and on the streets to protest illegal commercial establishments in their neighbourhoods, ensuring segregation at source, better footpaths, more open spaces, and the like. Ask these questions of the major political parties in a multiple-choice format – Yes, No, Maybe and No response. And put out their response on a website and in resident Whats App groups.
Next, the citizen group could organise a Town Hall meeting with the major candidates, where they are asked to elaborate their responses to the 10 key specific questions. Do not allow the candidates to go off topic or into a blame game exercise that serves no purpose except generate heat and fury.
Summarise the responses of each candidate on each issue into two or three sentences that sets out their approach to the problem. Make this available online. If done right, this could provide inputs for voters to make rational choices among the candidates. Let’s use the current moment when they want our vote and willing to sing for their supper. The more we get the candidate to commit to specifics now, the greater the chance for better outcomes later.