PACHU MENON
Spread in 7 phases across the country between 11 April to 19 May, General Elections 2019 is rightly touted as the ‘festival of democracy’. But gone is the vivaciousness associated with elections which typified the decades gone by.
With the Election Commission gaining its voice after the relative stint of T N Seshan at the helm, the sea of changes observed after the large-scale electoral reforms introduced literally took the bite off the election campaigning thereafter. Posters and life-size cut-outs without which no election canvassing was ever thought to be complete, is slowly receding into the realms of antiquity and door-to-door campaigning which seeks to bring candidates closer to voting public is finding favour.
However, EC ‘sanctions’ notwithstanding, nothing much has changed for the political fraternity in the country as far as elections are concerned. To the resonating applause of an eager audience, leaders continue delivering election promises fully aware that these ‘pledges’ won’t survive a day over the polling-day schedule. Issues continue to be used for leverage and dominate the proceedings in the run up to elections.
This once, with the accusations and counter-accusations alternating between BJP and Congress camps, the Rafale deal promises to eclipse the earlier imbroglios “ at least for the complexity that is being made of it! Yet the feeling that it is only the elections as the process by which citizens chose their representatives to run the government democratically for a term of office that has evolved over the years, with the perceived view of the people about elections remaining much the same all through the decades.
Most people have always maintained that voting as a cumbersome and meaningless exercise has not changed to the extent so as to have any discernible impression that could convince them to come out in large numbers to partake in electing a government of their choice. No wonder we Indians find ourselves saddled with ‘unpopular’ regimes so often!
The modern fad that has people cursing the dearth of good candidates and deciding on novelties that NOTA provides may well complicate matters further as it is ‘stipulated’ that a certain proportion of NOTA votes polled in any booth will necessitate a re-election there. The expenses incurred apart, the colossal waste of time in putting the process into operation all over again is too tedious. However, in comparison to the last general elections, the news that Goa has recorded a drop of around 2-3% in the 2019 LS elections is in no way a reflection of a state that had joined the national chorus of demands for accountability on the part of its law-makers and transparency in governance.
The very fact that if not for the bypolls, the voter turnout would have dipped further points to a ‘tradition’ where Goans have not unduly concerned themselves much with the politics at the centre. No doubt a few Goan leaders did have eventful tenures in the Parliament.
However, Manohar Parrikar’s stint as the Defence Minister of the country, as a rare honour for the state, has remained unparalleled. Otherwise, the two LS bha seats from Goa have only served to add to the tally in the lower house. Maybe this in turn has reflected in the restrained response to the general elections in Goa. Presumably, people here have been more enthusiastic about the parochial politics dabbled in by local leaders. That the by-polls apparently envisaged the maximum interest in the state further substantiates the feeling.
But has Goa never felt the necessity to elect responsible and efficient representatives to the Parliament in order to have the local issues to be heard and addressed in the higher echelons of power!
The absence of quality representatives who are well-versed with the problems that assail the state and are competent enough to put it across to the centre will spell disaster for Goa.
Mining for example! What the state needs in Parliament are not mute spectators thumping desks, but committed representatives who have it in them to convince the centre to address the problems of Goans.
It is however a pity that till the last minute, undecided on their choice of candidates, people are known to cast their votes just for the sake of exercising their franchise. For that matter, except for Delhites in recent times, the rest of the country has come a cropper when it comes to springing a surprise on the established political class by electing rank outsiders to power. Assured of a thorough sweeping of the cobwebs of inefficiency and corruption that clouds good administration, Delhi, even after having had the common man’s government installed, finds itself insufficiently secured against these administrative limitations.
Having said that, it is a paradigm of ironies that where tyrannical regimes were put down by mass uprisings bringing with it a new dawn of hope; when it comes to governments of the people, by the people and for the people, the masses themselves have been conspicuous by their reluctance to actively partake in the electoral process to decide on their representatives.
But, if incidents leading up to this general election are any indication, they may well signify the coming of age of the Indian voter. For long harangued by the tribe of glib talkers, the aam aadmi is slowly but surely asserting himself, and very emphatically at that. Refusing to take things lying down, he has made it more than obvious that he wouldn’t cringe from confronting the law-makers when it comes to the denial of his basic needs.
Hence, it did take the EC some time to reconcile when villagers from 2 remote hamlets of the state threatened to boycott the LS bha polls if their long-pending grievances were not attended to immediately. This could well be seen as that first step towards ‘demanding’ accountability from the elected members. Undoubtedly, elections this once is very much a festival of democracy!
