Poll-tricks galore

We all need answers when they shine on our television screens and bombard us on social media platforms with their respective rhetoric, claims and counter claims. We think every election they should not make mere promises, but give us a concrete action plan that can address the core issues of the nation which is still struggling to get over basic problems decades after independence. Political parties continue to treat us as if we live in a fool's paradise, creating their own agendas and forcing them on us.

The Lok Sabha elections 2019 are no different. Some parties think problems like poverty, unemployment, agrarian crisis aren't as serious as they are, because they have done enough to address them in the short time the voters had given them. They seek votes harping on an agenda that appears completely different from what they had said was their primary duty towards the citizen of the country.

Offering money is the norm
Other parties say these problems continue to persist even after years of them being in the government, but don't show a way out that could prove sustainable in the long run. The common act of benevolence between these parties is that when they can't solve the problem through policy making, they just ensure that the target group is given some money or sops.

Offering money ahead of or after the polls in the garb of public welfare schemes that are branded with attractive acronyms has become the norm. This happens despite historical failures of similar schemes. Remember farm loan waiver schemes that various governments announced in the past 20 years? Government relief or no relief, farmer's suicides continue to happen in affected areas.

It has always been a matter of convenience for political parties when it comes to strategic campaigns. Be it BJP and the Congress or the powerful regional parties that dream of installing their own PM two months from now on, they have no guts whatsoever to debate the real issues when they appeal to the voters for their valuable support. The narrative isn't all about the real national issues - internal and external - but it invariably becomes individual-specific in which important personalities from all parties are violated by way of allegations, counter-allegations and insinuations.

With 10 days to go for the first phase of polling, the picture appears clear as to what the world's largest democratic exercise would have on offer.

Debates do happen, but that zone is restricted to the controlled environment of television studios. These debates offer common voters no vision, programme, or agenda. Shouting at the top of their voices, the participants hardly make a point that should be taken seriously. At times, the debates are worse than liquor den quarrels. Since these guys follow the directives and the line prescribed by their respective parties, we shouldn't expect their respective leaders to say anything different when they address poll rallies across the country.

The don't-speak-real-issues effect trickles down to the low rung party workers who have been toiling hard at many levels in the past two elections. The advent of social media has given a Himalayan rise to the easiest and most effective method of campaigning through digital way. These workers are engaged along with the professionals who manage social media war-rooms for the parties and individual candidates. Once the course is charted on a daily basis - it's usually damning for the rival parties or individual leaders - the particular posts are made viral. Trolls from both sides do their job religiously. The voters are flooded with memes and posts that intelligently divert attention to non-issues.

Issues turned into non-issues
When real issues are made into non-issues, the voters start thinking about the caste, community and religion of the candidates in the contest. In fact, the candidates are selected on the basis of these three major factors.

Exceptions could be very few across the country. All national or regional parties follow the practice of making their talks of alleviating caste discrimination and bringing in social equality redundant. Even in the segments that are reserved for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, the candidates from dominant castes and sub-castes get preference.

In this election, Prakash Ambedkar made a departure from the practice, in a fashion that exposed the parties that have made the caste system a weapon for victory. He mentioned the caste of all candidates while announcing the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi's nominees in Maharashtra. His argument was that he had tried to give representation to the caste groups that have been ignored consistently by other parties. In a way, Ambedkar did not hide the bowl while attempting to drink the water from the big pond of the electorate.
Our election system may have reformed in the past 30 years, but the spirit of representative form of democracy is still missing.

Dharmendra Jore is political editor, mid-day. He tweets @dharmendrajore Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

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