The reluctant voter
Why mass awareness campaigns failed to enthuse Mumbaikars ……..Pritish Nandy
The pundits are still dazed as to why the number of people who voted this time was so low. There are more eligible voters around. The voting population has also become younger, more aware of larger political and economic issues. There was a more varied choice of candidates, not the usual gaggle of thugs and geriatrics. The public too has become more vocal, more vociferous about what they expect from their leaders. So everyone expected this to translate into more votes.
The emotional triggers were there as well. The huge swell of public indignation over the terror attack and the way it showed up the ineptitude of our political leadership. The near magical way in which thousands of citizens assembled within 48 hours at the Gateway of India through SMS and social networking sites, to protest against those in power and grieve for those who lost their lives restored our faith in peoples commitment to fight for change. The economic slowdown and growing job loss fears and the Government doing nothing about it, apart from increasing the power, pelf and perquisites of its own monstrous bureaucracy; recurring farmer suicides, the stock market stumble, rising food prices, and the general sense of panic over where the economy is heading made perfect reason for more people voting.
WHAT WENT WRONG?
WHAT WENT WRONG?
One:
The pressure put on all of us to vote had, for the first time, reached an absurd level. Political parties, newspapers, TV channels, movie stars, NGOs, even FMCG brands went on this huge overdrive, virtually coercing people to vote. It was almost as if those who dont vote are traitors to democracy. Now, as we all know, people who dont vote are either cynics who believe that whichever party comes to power makes no real difference to the politics we have to eventually live with or those who are too lazy to make a choice between candidates they are not actually thrilled about. Surely that doesnt make them idiots or social outcastes as several campaigns seemed to suggest. Voting is a strictly personal decision. And so is not voting. By putting so much pressure on people to vote we actually succeeded in putting them off. Even someone like me, who always votes, was a reluctant voter this time. My POV was simple: I know my rights, I know my responsibilities. Dont push me.
Two: Our elections are no more elections. They are reality shows. Issues are no longer central to our polls. The size and scale of the tamasha is. News television has substantially contributed to this. So have the parties. Few field real candidates any more. What they field are celebrities, clowns, retired actors and thugs who have lots of money and not enough clout to stay out of jail. To endorse these candidates they hire more of the same. Yes, people go to rallies to enjoy the fun of watching these guys make an ass of themselves but no everybody is stupid enough to vote for them. Those who made the mistake of voting for someone like Govinda last time are most unlikely to repeat it. By reducing the elections to the level of entertainment, all the parties have undermined the seriousness of issue-based politics and effectively told us that whoever you and I may vote for, parliament will ultimately end up with a whole bunch of clowns, criminals, crooks and conmen masquerading as leaders of the nation. We may well be proved wrong but, right now, no ones ready to believe that.
Three: None of the parties stand for anything any more. Yes, we associate some of them with some issues from the pastor new issues being raised just to get votes (Jaswant Singhs bleeding heart for Gurkhaland is a perfect example) but, by and large, no party today stands for anything in particular. The reasons obvious. They are keeping their options open to align with whoever can form the next Government. So the poor voters stuck, not knowing who to vote for. Imagine the plight of the anti-Left voter in Bengal who supports a Congress candidate because Congress and Trinamool are allies, only to hear Rahul Gandhi announce two days before the poll that the Congress is open to a deal with the Left. Do you really expect him to vote? The truth is that coalition politics has become so unprincipled, so low that you and I never know whether the people (and the parties) we are voting for will eventually represent what they claim to stand for. They may well join what we voted against.
Thats the dilemma of todays voter. We no longer know what we are voting for. What we once called horse trading is now the new derby. Everyones pitching for the post-poll calculus. There are no good guys left any more. No bad guys either. Only winners and losers.