In exactly two weeks India will have a brand new parliament. Will the mandate be for overwhelming change? Chances are it will. Some observations from me about Elections 2014: - 814 million people were eligible to vote this time, over 100 million of them for the first time. - 438 seats have already gone to the polls; 105 left for the last phase on May 12th. - 68% voters have cast their vote in the first 4 phases of elections as per the EC. - This election has seen PLUs (people like us) step out and make their opinion count like never before. - Unlike in past elections, where the sanctity of secret ballot was respected, this time around I notice many sharing who they vote for and demanding in an entitled manner to know whom their friends/family voted for. - Facebook was around in 2009 but I dont remember this level of frenetic discussion on social networks about the elections. USA 2008 drew an insane amount of attention on the interwebz but that must have been the Fox News effect. And yeah Sarah Palin. - UPA1 had a pretty clean run till all the skeletons started tumbling out of the closet during their second run. Rarely before has a sitting government been pilloried and ridiculed thus. Dr. Singh must be the first PM on whom such opprobrium has been heaped, publicly. I am too young to remember Morarji Desai, but even a PM that slept through parliamentary sessions was never criticized the way the current PM has. Considering he was widely respected as the architect of Indias march into the liberalized era, it is doubly insulting to the soft-spoke academic. - Narendra Modis image makeover has been the highlight of this election. from most people clamouring for his head as a mass murderer to accepting him as the de facto leader of the next government has been a remarkable feat. Whether the NDA manages to make the magic 272 is anybodys guess as of now, but the BJPs thinktank has pulled off what most including myself would have dismissed as impossible 10 years ago. - Anti-corruption sentiment has added a huge bunch of very vocal voters to the equation. Regardless of my personal reservations on Arvind Kejriwals ability to govern effectively there is no denying that the AAP has a serious fan following that is only likely to grow larger the next time this country goes to the polls. Voting into power a group of people untouched by the lure of lucre is a tempting proposition, and one that has many takers especially among the urban educated youth. - For me the one strange thing that stood out this election is the Congress partys seeming refusal to accept that dynastic politics has become less and less palatable to voters in the third millennium. Or perhaps they know something we dont? Refusing to consider anyone for PM post except a bearer of the Gandhi surname comes across as a throwback to some bygone era. Ironically the only party member claiming to be an iconoclast is a bearer of that hallowed name himself. Which is why so many treat his utterances as hollow or, worse, comical. - Meanwhile the vote bank thinking continues to dominate with various takers for the Muslim vote, OBC mandate, Dalit voice etc. Despite the only right-wing Hindu party in the fray seemingly dissociating itself from its dominant 90s ideology, terms like minority appeasement and building temple in Ayodhya still feature in the popular discourse, albeit mutedly. Few people other than opposing party spokespersons openly call them mass murderers much more, with the general consensus seeming to be The SC gave them a clean chit. Vicious critics of Modi have become tolerant of him, those formerly neutral have gone positively sycophantic. On the other hand those who never liked him and still dont have themselves polarized into the same kind of shrill, vicious rabblerousers they accuse his supporters of being. The rest of the world calls them AAPtards and NaMotards. I just call them my Facebook buddies! - But the biggest, most alarming development this election (that I fear is here to stay) is the absolute lack of restraint and decorum displayed by all concerned when engaging in public discourse. Social media has of course fuelled it but cannot be blamed exclusively. TV anchors vie to outdo themselves in pushing the envelope to provoke that juicy soundbite which keeps them going for months. Eloquent and loud-voiced spokespersons for major parties land up in the studio at 9 pm, ready and willing to outshout each other, consequences be damned. Self-proclaimed leaders of industry wear their political colours on their sleeve and joust with generic policy analysts and has-been editors sipping whisky on TV. Families are dragged into the muck, privacy disrespected in a manner that nobody would tolerate in their own household, all for a share of the noise. Media plants words in peoples mouths to provoke outrage. Daughters and sisters are invoked, estranged wives relentlessly followed. A young mistresss computer is hacked for pics. The nations official broadcaster is accused of kowtowing to the ruling Goverments fancies. Its been a wild, crazy ride that is due to end soon. Or will it? Depending on who you ask, the NDA will win a landslide or the AAP create a major upset. the latest theory is UPA3- a veritable hodgepodge of parties and ideologies neither united nor, I suspect, progressive! All I can say is- buckle up!!!
Posted on: Fri, 02 May 2014 06:48:39 +0000
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