General Elections-2014: A Saga Of The Three Ps!

Five polling phases of the 9-phase General or Lok Sabha (Lower House of Indian Parliament) Elections-2014 have been completed. The sixth phase polling is being conducted on Thursday, the 24^th of April. In this phase Mumbai too goes to poll with its six Lok Sabha seats. In this last phase of polling in Maharashtra there are 13 other seats including in Thane, Raigad, Nashik and Jalna-Aurangabad. When Maharashtra and Mumbai go to poll the malady of voter apathy comes in naturally since voting has been consistently low in these parts over the decades. Talking particularly about Mumbai the normal voting percentage has been around just 42% taking all kinds of poll into account. This General Elections things seem to be improving quite a bit, but about Mumbai fears are still there. Only tomorrow the scenario here would be clear. Anyway, we will come to this first P of our subject that is percentage of voting later.

The other two Ps are the absolute low points of this General Elections. First is personalized. Leaders of all political parties are getting extremely personal in their attacks and counterattacks. No kin of any candidate seems to be safe anymore. If someone is attacked for his rediscovered or existing wife then some other is attacked for the lack of a one. Similarly husbands, mothers, sons and even in-laws of candidates are being brought in to score more over one another as far as ‘antics’ or ‘the lack of it’ of their kin are concerned. The hapless voters are the mute spectators of such abusive missiles and they are at a total loss to understand what sort of political gains are being made out of these. We had already mentioned in these pages earlier that this time mutual attacks have plummeted to never-before lows and mere name-calling is driven out as an unnecessary detail of the past. Now the circus has stopped to be entertaining.

The most sinister P of our narrative is polarization. All political parties, major or ally or bully, are shamelessly indulging in the politics of communalism. One after the other political leaders in almost all parts are making hate speeches and divisive and inflammatory comments aimed mainly at polarizing the two major religious communities of the country. Their agenda or so-called manifestos are no longer national. They promise ‘things’ to be done for a particular community if voted to power. Those who want to come back to power are promising the opposite. ‘Revenge’ is also emerging as the underlying theme of ‘repairing’ things. Bans or restrictions have been imposed by the Election Commission of India and FIRs have been lodged too in some cases. But the leaders know well how ineffective these measures finally prove to be and so are hardly caring for these. Voters must take into account this unprecedented ‘low’ for the largest democracy of the world while exercising their democratic right.

The only highlight represented by one of the three Ps is percentage of voting thanks to the novel initiatives of the Election Commission and awareness campaigns. General Elections-2014 records high to very high voting percentages ranging from 70% to around 86% in various states of India that have voted so far. In Maharashtra the percentage has improved to around 65%, a 20% increase in some areas, so far. However, it is still low compared to other states or regions. More positively, in the Naxal or Maoists-affected regions citizens have voted fearlessly in large numbers.

Normally, high voting turnout is considered as an anti-incumbency wave. That is to say, people want a change in ruling political parties. However, due to the never-before polarization visibly obvious in the country some experts would like to ascribe this high percentage to polarization. This means that maybe due to desperation voters of a particular community want to ensure ‘their’ candidates win. We hope this is not the case. We hope the people of India are voting for an authentic and meaningful change. Amen!  

Right To Reject: One Historic For Voters, One Shocker From Rahul!

The Supreme Court of India gave a historic judgment today. The public litigation petition demanding the Right to Reject for voters had been pending for last nine years and Anna Hazare during his Movement against Corruption in 2011-12 made a lot of hue and cry for this too. Today the Supreme Court put its seal of approval on this. Now voters can reject all the candidates in his constituency if s/he thinks all of them are crooks and useless.  There will be a new option in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), ‘None Of The Above’, so that all candidates of all parties could thereby be rejected by the voter. Exactly when the EVMs are going to be adjusted or the date of effect to this decision is a matter of pure speculation at the moment.

This is basically a negative vote, but the apathetic voters now need not sit at home and abstain from their constitutional duty. They can go to the polling booths and exercise their Right to Reject by voting for the new option. Maybe Voters’ Apathy could finally be tackled effectively. This landmark judgment has huge dimensions in terms of its possible repercussions, cascading impact and the final result. Politicians of all parties have been very guarded in their reactions and justifiably so. Already haunted by the words like ‘split votes’ or ‘hung houses’ they are scared indeed at the core of their hearts as to what this may finally lead them and the country to. The Supreme Court verdicts must be respected and followed at all costs. The consternation is more due to the Assembly Elections lined up for December, 2013 and then the real humdinger of a General Election in April-May, 2014. The Supreme Court very clearly points out that voting is a constitutional right while the right to reject is always a fundamental right. For all lesser mortals it is indeed a cause for great celebration.

Although not corroborated by facts the Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi seemed to have been so very much inspired by this ‘right to reject’ that it immediately guided him making a brief appearance at an explosive press conference and rejecting the Ordinance on convicted politicians promulgated by his own government. At the Press Club in Delhi along with Congress General Secretary Ajay Maken Rahul said that the Ordinance was complete nonsense and that ‘it must be torn up and thrown in the dustbin’. He elaborated that all political parties made such compromises to suit their ends and his own party made a mistake in this same way. Just before making a dramatic exit Rahul was quick to add that this was his ‘personal opinion’. In the process he managed to shock literally everyone of all hues and colors—his own UPA government, all opposition parties, all varieties of the media and all citizens at large. Ajay Maken, continuing the press conference, supported Rahul by saying that his word is Congress policy. Several other Congress ministers followed with their support to their future poll prospect. That it has caused one more profound embarrassment for the distressed UPA government and finally the  Prime Minister who is presently in the USA is anybody’s safe guess. Some News channels have already started raging debates if the Prime Minister should really resign now. The opposition political parties including BJP especially seem to be fighting to come out of daze to properly react.

The Union Cabinet on 24^th September had cleared the Ordinance to negate another landmark judgment of the Supreme Court that struck down a provision in the electoral law which allowed a convicted MP and MLA to continue in their post if they make an appeal to a higher court within three months and ruled that if convicted for a crime with a punishment of more than two years the concerned elected members must be disqualified instantly. This verdict was hailed in all sensible quarters in the country as an effective step to counter politicians with criminal backgrounds. The Government claimed that an all-party consensus had been reached on August 13 on this issue of negating the SC verdict and the BJP was very strongly in favor of legislation. Since the bill could not be passed in Parliament the Government took the Ordinance route. In this crazy political times the BJP vociferously opposed the Ordinance and yesterday represented with the President Pranab Mukherjee to send it back. This BJP move had tremendously angered the Government who termed it as the party’s consistent ‘double standards’. Now, with Rahul Gandhi coming out in opposition it is to be seen what the Congress led UPA government finally tells the President to do. In all, both these momentous events augur well for the lesser mortals of the country like us.

Meanwhile, the eloquent Information and Broadcasting Minister, Manish Tewary, seemed to in his elements at another press conference in the capital today just preceding the Rahul one. When asked by journalists to comment on the recent statement of Narendra Modi that ‘CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) is going to fight the coming general elections, not the Congress party’, the minister said, “At times the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi ends up speaking the truth only. Indeed, the CBI is going to fight the elections. The ‘Communal Bureau of Instigation’ is getting ready on his behalf for this’. And then he smiled, of course.

Mandatory Democracy?

Thanks to Mumbai's poor voting, barely 40 per cent, few political leaders have demanded voting be made mandatory. Well, how do you enforce it? By getting the abstaining voters arrested or withdrawing basic facilities from them or making them pay more tax and money?

Voters understand their rights and would always like to exercise provided they benefit from this. How their expectations are met? With more and more lousy promises? The terror trauma of 2008 will take time to get erased. This can only be done by politicians becoming accountable--offering concrete solutions rather than mere promises.

We are not supporting abstaining voters; we are only trying to analyse this most serious trend for the largest democracy of the world. Trying to enforce democracy would be the joke of the millennium!

Before making such demands so-called leaders should first introspect, introspect intensely.

Dismal Voting in Mumbai

Today, in the third phase of General Elections 2009 and the last phase in Maharashtra, Mumbai recorded only about 45 per cent of voting. Only seen in large numbers were the celebrities, politicians and the Bollywood stars. And why not, they will only be grateful for the bonus doses of publicity.

There was total apathy from the common man. Maybe because of the fact that their problems remain always. Or maybe because of the soaring mercury. Or maybe because of the casualness of the Mumbaikars who like to plan weekends with this extra holiday on account of election.

But the terror trauma of 26/11 may be the real dampener too.

Most urban places of Maharashtra had poor turnouts and moderate polling in the rest. Many other states of India too recorded pathetic turnouts. This may really be ominous in terms of the possibility of a hung parliament.

Indian democracy at the crossroads?

To Vote Or Not To Vote

Why should we vote? It is because of two vital reasons. Firstly because it is our fundamental democratic right for which people struggled and suffered all over the world throughout history. Secondly because we must elect our representatives to form a government to give us good rule.

When we vote we naturally express our expectations. We expect better times, solutions to our everyday problems, provision of minimum amenities for quality living and a good security environment.

Politicians play on our expectations and make all sorts of promises to muster our precious votes. Most often these promises are forgotten or belied or abused. Some people stoically accept this as the most natural way of democratic life and do not bother about voting or not voting. Others get disillusioned and threaten to refrain from exercising their democratic right.

The 26/11 Mumbai terror attack disillusioned many. They were horrified at the hollowness of the security system. They poured into the streets demanding protection as their basic right and took the government and the politicians to task. The rest was history.

This sense of disillusionment is being increasingly seen if different parts of Maharashtra. People are being fed up continuously confronting the same nagging problems like lack of drinking water, lack of medical facilities and schools, lack of employment opportunities, problem of load shedding, vicious clutch of poverty and many others. False promises make their disillusionment turn into despair urging them on to take hard decisions. Different rural pockets of Chandrapur and Sangli and 27 villages of Jalgaon voiced their protests by deciding to boycott the general elections. The leper colony of Solapur too decided against voting owing to their continued misery. It is heart wrenching to see poor villagers articulating their helplessness. The bug is spreading fast and wide.

The scenario is disturbing. Experts and politicians should take note of this and think of ways to motivate the citizens instead of opinionating and politicizing the issue. Opinions do differ as ever. Some talk of there being ‘selfish motives’ behind voting and ‘petty politics’ behind not voting. Still others point out the ‘elitist bias’ behind the post 26/11 Mumbai uprising. But one cannot ever dissociate ‘people’ from a democracy and people’s genuine feelings must be attended to, and that too in good time.

India takes pride in being the largest democracy of the world. But pride must always be supported by commitment. Our democratic traditions must be preserved.