SOME THOUGHTS ON ELECTION DAY

As the city in which I live and work, Pune, goes to the polls tomorrow, and my native city, Bombay, goes to the polls next week, I thought of writing a blog on the process of elections in a parliamentary democracy. Of course, I must specify that I don’t vote myself, or to put it more accurately, I cannot vote even if I want to, for my name does not for some reason figure in the voter lists. As far as elections are concerned, I am thus a persona non grata. I do believe, though, that given a choice there are people who would like to see me disenfranchised for reasons I won’t go into here.

A democracy is said to be a system of government for, of and by the people. I have always been of the view that there is something wanting in this definition. If nothing else, the noun people needs to be qualified by an adjective, and that adjective would have to be illiterate. So, a democracy, according to me, is a system of government for, of and by illiterate people.

I mean no offence. Literally, a democracy does not prescribe a minimum qualification for either those who contest elections, or those who vote, and the government that thus comes to power is for everyone, ranging from PhD holders to those who have never seen the inside of a school. In other words, a democracy isn’t a meritocracy.

But the figurative or symbolic aspects of the word illiterate are far more significant. In that respect, even a PhD holder can be illiterate. And a cab driver—again, no offence meant—can be literate. And I would call anyone illiterate who votes entirely on the basis of what the government has done for them personally, rather than on the basis of what the government has done for the nation as a whole, and for the Constitution, which is the Bhagavad Gita of our parliamentary democracy.

What I mean is that is the voter voting only on the basis of whether they are gainfully employed, affected by inflation, promised freebies and cash money that will go into their bank accounts (not to speak of illicit money doled out to them before elections to bribe them to vote for a particular candidate), and so on? Or are they casting their vote after asking themselves a series of worrying questions that would include:

Does my candidate belong to a political party that understands and adheres to the Constitution?

Does the political party in question truly understand the principles of a parliamentary democracy, or is it obfuscating the distinction between a democracy on the one hand, and an autocracy and a theocracy on the other?

Are the ideologues of the political party in question the Great Dictators of the 20^th century, Adolf Hitler in particular?

Is the federal structure of Indian democracy being slowly eroded by the political party in question?

Likewise, are the secular credentials of our Constitution being tampered with by the said political party? Does the political party suffer from Islamophobia, Christianophobia and minoritophobia?

Does the political party that I’m voting for understand the importance of checks and balances in the form of a free press, an independent judiciary and bureaucratic agencies, and above all, a vibrant opposition? Does it welcome, or is supercilious about criticism?

Does the political party stand for pluralism, or is it obsessed with a series of Ones: One Nation-One Leader-One Party-One Election-One Language-One Ideology-One Religion?

Is the political party quick to accuse its opponents of scams, while resorting to bigger scams of its own?

Has the political party stooped so low as to break up other political parties and blackmail their members to join it? Often by threatening to arrest them on corruption charges?

Does the political party in question believe in the dictum Bail is the Rule and Jail is the Exception? Or does it throw people into prison right, left and centre, conveniently forgetting that there is something called habeas corpus?

Is the political party, perhaps in a spirit of competitiveness, matching the Emergency of 1975-1977 with an Undeclared Emergency of its own?

And so on.

Many voters convince themselves that they’re voting for a political party and its leader, although they are fully aware of its misdoings, on the ground that there is no viable alternative in the country to the said leader. This to my mind is a sure sign of illiteracy. I mean, no one, I repeat, no one, is indispensable, whether in families, in multinational corporations, or in the government. Don’t the patriarchs of families die? Do their deaths mark the end of the family? Don’t the head honchos of multinational companies retire? Does their superannuation mark the end of the company? Similarly, rulers of nations come and go, but that doesn’t mark the death of the nation. The nation, like life, goes on. To people who say to me, for example, “Who, other than Modi?” my laconic answer is, “Well, whoever.”

The point is, heads of families, companies and nations emerge when the need arises. Things don’t come to a standstill. Things don’t, like a freight train, grind to a halt.

Actually, the seeming lack of a viable alternative is, according to me, a good sign because it compels us to look for an alternative, and in this way herald change. And change is any day preferable to maintaining the status quo. If governments are intended to exist for life, why are elections in democratic countries held every four or five years? When the Americans voted Trump out of power and elected Joe Biden, they opted for change. When, in the 1970s, we in India voted Indira Gandhi out of power and brought in the Janata Party, we opted for change. And when we in India in 2014 voted the Congress out of power and brought in the BJP, we opted for change. So, now, ten years later, isn’t it time for change again?  The dangers of not ushering change at the appropriate time are several. Rulers begin to think they are invincible. Rulers become megalomaniacs. Rulers become sycophants and encourage sycophancy. Rulers begin speaking nonsense. All these attributes are more than apparent in the India of today.

And so, tomorrow, and the next week, when people go out to vote, I would very much wish that they keep these things in mind before getting their index fingers defaced with indelible ink, which they are supposed to hold up as proof of the fact that they’ve voted, as if to say, Up Yours.