Issues and Elections

Are elections in India contested on the basis of the real issues faced by the common public? If someone is replying yes, then he must the most hypocritical person in this world. How do we define the real issue? Among the population of over 100 crores, can there be one single issue that is acceptable to one and all? This is discussed already in my earlier blog real&politikindia

How many of us have genuinely gone through the manifesto released by the parties? Had we gone through, how many of us have raised queries that arose in our mind? Sops after sops were promised and no source of revenue was mentioned. Did we ever worry to question that?

Whether one accepts it or not, elections are nothing but selling. The party that is contesting has to sell itself among the public. Obviously, when it boils down to convincing the prospect, marketing techniques are adapted. The political parties are catering to variety of customer segments. The elite class, the middle-class, the media and those in the BPL. This can be further classified into regional, religious, caste, creed and what not?

Political parties are forced to create an image of themselves among the public. How many of us would appreciate a candidate who comes silently from door to door canvassing his election? After the media started reporting the property details of candidates in dailies, what is our reaction? Did we ever try to gather information on the source of their income instead, we discuss who has more? When we have such an attitude, we should not talk of discussing issues in elections.

How many of the middle-class citizens go out for voting? Hardly 35% of them go out to vote. They have the excuse, “all of them are same and why should we vote?” How many times, we came down on streets to register our protest on an issue? We are driven by euphoria. After 26/11, some media gathered mass and diverted the public from the core issue of Governments inaction by lighting candles. All our problems related to terrorism got solved once we lit the candles and changed the minister. At the least the people’s response gives this indication.

As a marketing guy, I would concentrate only on those segments that give me returns. Hence, there is nothing wrong in politicians concentrating on BPL. Two thousand bucks a day, free meals and alcohol is too much for those in the BPL. Make hay while sun shines. Why not vote as many number of times as long as I get benefited. After all, this is the time for them to make money. Why should they give up their chance?

If the elections are to be fought on real issues as we define, then it lies in our approach and not in the politicians’. In this representative system the communication between people and the representative is one-way. They speak and we listen. When will we speak and they listen? How many of us preferred watching LokSabha DD to ever-crying soaps? When will we come down on streets to protest anything that we felt unfair? When will we come out for Voting even if it meant we are making it invalid or choosing option 49-O?

Let us stop blaming squarely the politicians for all the problems we have with us. Issues that concerns the nation does not impact the elections. Issues have no influence. The elite class never comes out to vote but fund the parties and maneuver the policies to their benefits. Those in the BPL live for the day and they are paid for the day, and they are least bothered about tomorrow. Those in the middle class are good at whining, commenting from their drawing room, would never come out to vote. Why should the politicians worry about this lot who in no way beneficial to him or the society?

If we want elections to be contested on issues, let us play a constructive role in this. Go out for voting is the prime task in this program. I am not repeating what I had mentioned in the series of blogs on this subject. We can talk of issue based politics only when the turnout reaches 75%. Till then, talking of it is a FARCE.