It takes heroes to never break a promise. That is exactly what we hoped for when we elected this government- heroes that would keep their promise. Promises of good governance, fiscal prosperity, equality and gender justice, and sabka sath ,sabka vishwas being at the forefront of their manifesto one would hope for a better independent India.
Every time our local heroes address an audience, they ensure us of our right. They bribe us with a whole list of good intentions. Attend any function where they are invited as Chief Guest and you will be a witness to multitude of such promises. From broader roads, to tourism benefits, to the MOI issues, the promises are made dime to a dozen.
What is audacious about these promises is that the politicians make them with such fervor and panache, that one would actually be led to believe that they are toiling at their own expense. Portraying themselves as great philanthropist, they make us believe that they are emptying their own pockets to help their people. Like a good King who wants to appease his subject, they promise to endow us with a couple of cores of Indian rupees to better our infrastructure, create job opportunities, develop and progress. Ironically, never once do you hear them speak about our tax payers’ money that they promise to use judiciously. (Ever wonder how they got their pauper to king status in the first place)
What is more disconcerting is whether our heroes use the strategy of promises as a bait or tool of appeasement? And that we as their electorate have no other choice then to fall back on this uncertainty.
When this Government took over, we were told that our youth are our future, we were promised a great investment in their well being. Yet under their governance, our youth are facing sedition charges, unrest and harassment witnessed for the first time since independent India.
The truth is that we are the infallible electorate who always believes in spite of being duped every time. Is it because we have nothing else besides promises to fall back on.
So how important are promises? Promises are indices of our social worth. The integrity we intent to display. We all make promises. They are the crux of human interactions.
Promises are willful intentions. They require us to make a conscious declaration, understanding that the recipient has a right to except or claim or forbid a specified act.
So when we do make a promise, we do so consciously, but maybe not in full awareness of its implications. That is why ever so often we end up breaking a promise and feeling miserable about it. The feeling comes from the fact that promises are significant affirmations of our intentions and trustworthiness which define social relations in our immediate world. Keeping promises are crucial since they facilitate love and trust.
This we truly understand when we have to bear the brunt of a broken promise. We do feel betrayed, irritated and frustrated as the case might be. Promises do matter.
So even though we may not be keeping every promise we make, we need to know when some promises could do more damage than good. When you keep a promise, not only have you done something nice for someone but you’ve also fulfilled a social contract and shown that you’re a reliable and trustworthy person.
The reason why we often are unable to keep a promise is because we do not decipher our own internal conflicts at the time we make the promise. Only a fraction of our thoughts and feelings are in our awareness at any given moment of time, and when we do make a promise, we are in truth focusing exclusively on those feelings that are most favorable and least threatening to our sense of wellbeing.
Should promises be made at all knowing that we may fail?
We may struggle to keep a promise and that is when we need to question ourselves and attend to those internal conflicts that we would want to ignore.
When we break a promise we communicate to that person that we don’t value them enough. Promises should be made with caution especially to children. Being honest to your children while committing to a promise is something you should adhere to. This might disappoint them because you may have to tell them something that they may not want to hear, but this will increase their sense of trust in you and their own sense of security.
As regards to our politicians who have failed miserably in keeping to their promises we need to change the script. We need to have a policy drafted like the one being tabled by the Canadian government ‘The “honesty- in- politics’ law entails a politician to be careful what they promise otherwise they could face charges of misleading with a high fine, equal to two years’ salary.
If India can table such a law, than the chances that we shall finally be able to progress with the feeling that the carrot dangling in front of us is actually attainable. For an honest governance we need honest promises to choose our candidates wisely. This would give voters a good reason to trust politicians again
