Vote for the party

Its election time and the question that came to my mind is if one should vote for the candidate or the party? After thinking for a while, it was pretty clear. In a parliamentary system like Indian, for the central elections, one should always vote for the party rather than a candidate. 

Let’s get the facts straight. The voters are voting for a government that is supposed to rule the country, not their state or district. One has to think of the larger picture rather than what will the candidate do for a particular constituency. I do believe that MP’s have a responsibility towards their constituency but more than that I believe that it’s the state government’s job to take care of the state. National elections are more than just about ones constituency. It should be based on national issue not local issues. 

From the little understanding that I have of a parliamentary democracy, I find that the party is god. In the parliament, even though every MP represents his constituency rather than a party, an MP cannot act against his party (and still be an MP). The job of the central government is policy making at the national level and not what the MP’s can do for different parts of India rather, what the party(or alliance) can do for the nation as a whole. I strongly believe that we need to vote for an ideology rather than “a particular candidate”. The central government decides what the foreign policy of the nation should be, they dictate the defense policies and in fact everything that will affect us as a nation is government by the central government. Do we really want to see a government which refuses to talk to America or refuses to make defense deals with Israel? 

Now I agree that MP should bring funds to his constituency and all, but its not done just by the MP alone. All work an MP does is with the help of his party. No MP can go against his party and get anything done. I seriously believe that we got our priorities wrong when we vote for central elections. Left may or may not be good in kerala, but when it comes to central elections we should see if they would be good for the country. What we see now is that for national elections, people vote for local issues, which is totally wrong. 

This is how regional parties have gained power. All they have to see is that their region is satisfied. They wouldn’t look at the nation’s interest at large. On the other hand, a national party would take a more considerate view of things. 

Issues such as foreign policy, reservations, defense expenditure, expenditure on agriculture etc should be the issues, not why isn’t there water in my taps, where is the fly over. These issues should be left for the state elections rather than central elections. I believe that the job of the voter is to vote for a party which they believe would take India forward. So vote for the party !!!