Author: Ansh Arora

Do you read the manifesto before deciding whom to vote for? Eventhough the significance of the manifestos in the election campaign should be a crucial factor influencing the vote of an individual, nonetheless it is rare that individuals take the effort to read the manifestos thoroughly and cast their vote.

Analysing the scenario, several reasons can be enlisted. Firstly, the majority of the people generally rely on the information media provides or on certain key elements, goals that are promoted by parties during their election campaign like the BJP’s Rs 6,000 per year promise to all small and marginal farmers along with pension for farmers above the age of 60 years, and the Congress pledging to restore full statehood to Jammu & Kashmir. However, in democracy, the voters need to be cautious as the media may be biased in reporting and may showcase one party or one ideology inclination which could possibly lead to a shift in voter’s opinion and choice, making the scales tip to that side, which to an extent defeats the essence of democracy.

Secondly, manifestos are becoming increasingly lengthy and complex in language and structure. They need the reader to have essentially high level of comprehension skills and understanding which appears to be limited across Indian voter landscape .

Thirdly, there are several other factors apart from manifestos like reliability and accessibility of the party and party members, star campaigners and their promises and generational political allegiances that impact the decisions of the voters. For an instance, the Congress sympathiser may not read the party manifesto, but they would be aware of the minimum income plan during the campaign and may justify their vote over this single statement rather than the aggregate of what the party has promised in its manifesto.

Few Parties prefer releasing their manifestos very close to the date of elections. Thus, the opinion about the party and its candidates is already formed as the agenda and discourse of political party during the election is strategized much before the publishing of the manifesto. This also leads to voters giving less importance to the manifesto and are influenced by the campaigning of the party.

There are few empirical evidences where it has been observed that the voters actually scan through the manifestos before elections. The CSDS survey conducted in Kerala and Tamil Nadu for 2016 Assembly Elections shows that the voters read the manifesto of each party before casting their vote. But the same cannot be claimed for voters throughout India.

It appears that manifestos are hardly read by the common voter, but it indeed works as a guiding force during the election campaign of the parties. And despite the questions raised about the significance of manifestos to the voters’ decision making, manifestos remain significant for the parties as it is a document exhibiting their ideologies, future plans and course of action on key issues. Instances of how parties have actually fulfilled what they had promised in their manifestos, even through diverse ruling tenures, have been quite pertinent.

Efforts to cultivate the practice of reading manifestos would ultimately lead to the evolution of informed citizenry choices and voting practices. This would further strengthen democracy in the true sense.