This obsession with elections

One of the ironies of democracy is BR Ambedkar perhaps the most educated politician at the time of Indiarsquos independence and the man who drafted the progressive Constitutiongranting to every Indian adult an equal right to vote himself lost every popular election he foughtFirst in Bombay North Central constituency in 195152 where he stood fourth defeated by a lesser known Congress candidate Narayan Kajrolkar and then in Bhandara constituency byelection in 1954 where he placed thirdThis is because as economist Ajit Ranade puts it there was then a ldquoNehru waverdquo Which accounted for 45 per cent of Indiarsquos votes not a majority in a real sense even thenA lsquoleharrsquo or wave centred on an individual far away but with the biggest face on posters on every wallregardless of the quality of the candidate in that neighbourhoodare to elections what God is to spirituality I guess As a voter yoursquore made to see yourself as atheist or believerwith little place for questioning agnostics Isnrsquot that how regressive partsfacets of religions work tooMixing it with politics it appears has the same effect on voterstotal complete faith in an individual over institutions Also deeming the potentially powerful as deities on one side and demons on the othereither theyrsquore dumb or geniuses selfmade or elite corrupt or incorruptible with you or against youhellipA lot like commentary on boxoffice heroes of showbizonly set among the relatively glamourlessthe election itself is reduced to lsquohe said she saidrsquo sort of gossip on news aimed for the drawing room The lsquoheroesrsquo fashion themselves as senapatiwarriors and the leadup is called a campaign as if on the battlefrontThese are lsquoprofessionalrsquo politicians What do they do for a living when not in power Unsure how many midlevel firms would hire someone for a professional intern if topclass lsquopolitickingrsquotripping someone on the way up publicly showing them downwas your core strength on the CV besides propaganda and pageantry of courseEstablishing messianic personality cults bereft of every shade of grey is the net consequenceoutcome of lsquopolarisationrsquo isnrsquot it How do you arrive at it though Through creating ingroups and outgroups obviouslyand getting the lsquoarithmeticrsquo right thereafter Thatrsquos an electionMalefemale relatively richpoor healthysick are perceptively the only three binaries of people you obviously sense around Rest is political obfuscations Chiefly lsquominoritymajorityrsquo Minoritymajority with respect to what Vote share what elseAnd itrsquos not like you win an election because the majority votes for you anyway You win because you got a vote more than the next best The winner takes all The power over public money and institutions handed on a plate is near completeThose around whether big businesses or supposedly independent institutional checksbalances out of fearfavour often start lining up to bend into subservienceisnrsquot this collusion the ultimate form of corruption which we tend to confuse with bribery insteadTechnically we can elect new leadersnot new voters The latter if they continue to reward the sway of group identities for paltry cash rather than longterm individual benefits health education etc will only produce mass politicians of the sort wersquove always known Once in power simply the incessant fear of losing takes over Indiarsquos 36 states and union territories go to polls every few months between general elections five years apart The pomp and hysteria hence never stopsAlthough I canrsquot recall people in general caring so much about every single state election like it was makeorbreak about a decade ago Maybe the stakes have gone up Or just the noisegyan through mainstreamsocial media hasAll of the above is mildly entertaining for the relatively uninterested outsideras average Amits like me continue to cynically view politicians as a powerhungry desperate collective while they survey us as a faceless crowdSomething changed during multiple state elections in 202021 though Particularly during peakpandemic when Indiarsquos young and old were fighting to deflect a killer virus if they werenrsquot already infected dying or deadDespite a universal health nightmareemergency of the sort wersquod never known we saw politicians actively invitingexhorting voters to ignore everythingjust jostle together instead at their election rallies like rats before Pied Piper of Hamelin Staying in and physical distancing were the only known preventive care for COVID19Forget the despicable record with building hospitals or the tonedeafness of a gossip campaign in the midst of all it became clearthey didnrsquot care about you as you live You were a vote Not a person Yoursquore otherwise anyway a market not a customer This was a war over you not another election How does this happen in a democracyAmbedkar kinda warned future Indians it would if political equality didnrsquot match socialeconomic For a moment and I hope Irsquom wrong it seemed that people had to be saved from their warring politicians first Now whatrsquos the vaccine for thatMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14 Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper