At the completion of a month-long process of parliamentary elections conducted over five phases, it is a moment for critical reflection as we eagerly await the election results on May 16. It is also the most opportune moment to reflect about the status of our democracy, because the process of formation of the next government at the Centre will grab all our attention from May 16 onwards.
This round of parliamentary elections has attracted a huge ‘public’ action. As many urban middle-class citizens marched in various protests after the Mumbai terror attack of end-November last year, there was much speculation about a ‘new’ Indian phenomenon. It was being then said that citizens are now angry with their political and official leaders for non-performance, and would be working seriously to make them accountable. The right to exercise one’s vote—to elect a representative—came in handy as a potential instrument during the ongoing parliamentary elections.
Thus, the last two months have witnessed a wide spectrum of civic initiatives around the country. Some initiatives focused on assisting the urban, educated youth to get registered as voters (Jaago Re campaign) through a specially designed website. Some election officers also ran public information campaigns to facilitate voter registration drives.
Then, some civic initiatives focused on scrutinising the record of candidates filing nominations. Association of Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch regularly compiled data about the assets and criminal records of candidates of major political parties, and released it publicly. Some other civic groups (like Wada Na Todo Abhiyan and People’s Campaign, etc) focused on demanding and analysing certain pro-people commitments from political parties through their manifestos.
There has also been a sudden upsurge of many new political formations and candidates to contest elections in order to ensure that ‘better’ quality professionals and intellectuals enter the nation’s parliament.
The involvement of Indian media in this process also became very widespread and unprecedented. Many major national dailies—English and Hindi—carried a two-month-long campaign on voter awareness and voting. Variously captioned as ‘Dance of Democracy’, ‘Lead India’, ‘Make your Vote count’, etc, these newspapers ran several pages of analysis of issues, candidate profiles, citizens’ voices, celebrity perceptions and opinions, etc. Electronic media also set up daily programmes of talk shows, opinions, analysis, and citizens’ views canvassed through emails, sms, etc. Many FM radio channels regularly created public service advertisements exhorting their listeners to vote, and vote thinkingly. The underlying message in all these media campaigns was to exercise your vote, and choose the right candidate.
Various types of celebrities also got active this time. Most visible (if not audible) were the Bollywood stars—the Khans. They gave advertisements, spoke on shows, and actually campaigned to get citizens to vote. Some sports stars and even religious gurus (Baba Ramdev, for example) were also active on occasion.
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It was perhaps for the first time that many corporate organisations openly asked their employees to get registered as voters, and to cast their votes. Banners, public advertisements and press statements to this effect were quite visible from many private sector companies during this period.
During the voting day itself, various civic volunteers were active in some locations to facilitate voters to reach the polling booths and cast their votes freely. The ‘Pappu’ campaign (‘don’t be a Pappu by not voting’) of election officers in some locations was also very visible. On the whole, it appears that lots of public awareness and mobilisation was carried out during this round of parliamentary elections.
It is time to reflect on this laudable series of efforts across the nation by civic associations, civil society and the media. It can be said that the general level of public information and awareness was amongst the highest of any recent parliamentary elections. It can also be said that a very wide spectrum of individuals, civic groups, corporations, media agencies and educational institutions—a broad rainbow of civil society—got involved in thinking about the significance of elections in a democracy, perhaps also about the significance of democracy itself. This is indeed a great thing for our country.
However, the voting percentage during this round of parliamentary elections has actually been lower than in 2004, a little less than 50 per cent of all voters in the country. Some commentators have also been expressing the frustrations of voters when they find that the quality of candidates in their constituency is rather poor, and almost all political parties will do ‘monkey-business’ to form a government, come what may. In a sense, the frustrations and anger of citizens about the nature of candidates, parties and their promises, and political machinations remain unchanged today.
It is in this sense that perhaps the focus of citizens’ actions during parliamentary elections is misplaced. The building blocks of our democracy are local governments—panchayats and municipalities. The constitution grants them enormous mandates. Most citizens vote actively in electing such representatives (panchayat voting percentages have averaged 85% plus; municipalities a bit lower). Nearly 2.2 million elected representatives are governing these local bodies, a good 42 per cent are women.
But, media does not create the same buzz about panchayat or municipal elections; civic groups do not get so active; urban educated youth is not mobilised for municipal elections; ‘stars’ do not shine on them; corporates do not pay any heed; state election commissions are poorly resourced to launch any campaigns; professionals do not get excited about contesting elections for mayors’ posts. Why?
If we are serious about our democracy, if we want to change the manner in which politics is conducted in the country, if we want ‘good’ candidates with track records of selfless service to contest, and if we want to raise the voting percentages in parliamentary elections to near 100 per cent, then we must focus our actions on elections to the building blocks—local governments—first. If we nourish and nurture the roots of local democracy, the flowering and fruiting of national democratic process would be more sustainable and durable.
The next rounds of panchayat and municipal elections in several large states will commence later this year, from November onwards.
During the previous two rounds of local government elections, some civil society coalitions conducted 5-6 month- long pre-election voters’ awareness campaigns during 2000-02 and 2004-06 (PRIA was able to secure recognition for these campaigns from most State Election Commissions too).
May I, therefore, appeal to all civic groups, concerned citizens, media groups, corporates and other civil society actors to join together to campaign even more vigorously in the forthcoming elections to local governments?
Perhaps such collective efforts at nurturing the roots of Indian democracy may yield more durable outcomes of transparent, accountable and decent politics in the country.
The author is President, PRIA