Elections in many countries are fought on many ideological grounds: the US has sharp divisions along Democrats/Republicans; similarly the UK, where Labour and Conservatives are ideologically opposed on a lot of matters. France has a multi-party system, but they still have parties that are ideologically distinct: an environmental party, a socialist party, far left communists, far right nationalists and so on. Some people will say India also has parties that are distinct from each other based on certain ideologies: Congress versus BJP on secularism; Congress/BJP versus Communists on economic policies and political philosophy; SP/BSP versus the rest on caste issues; DMK/AIADMK/TDP versus “north Indian parties”; and the rabble- rouser upstart AAP versus just about everyone – the list goes on and on. But in reality, why is everyone bent on making India all about votebanks and pro-poor policies? Why do we never have the right kind of foreign policy response to Pakistan or China? Why do we always sound on our back foot in UN debates, and too pompous and sore losers? No political party has a clear vision for the country that would entail a principled stand on issues, and ask the country to be ready for sacrifices in the short run to reap benefits in the long. Everyone wants to bleed the urban rich to cultivate the votes of the rural poor, which is the ONLY reason why voting is not mandatory, and online voting is not being introduced in the country. However, realities on the ground remain disturbingly similar no matter who rises to power: pro-poor, pro-rural tilt in policy making. If we consider the rich/poor divide on one axis and the urban/rural divide on the other, I would hazard a guess that the most votes come from the rural-poor segment, and the fewest from the urban-rich – which is self-evidently true, since the rich have more exit options and can buy themselves a bubble to isolate themselves from the impact of government policies. However, the point remains that ALL government policies remain such that resources are systematically drained from the urban-rich and diverted towards the rural poor.
Posted on: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 03:20:04 +0000
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