The new government must begin from an ascending stance with taking citizens with it seriously and believing in their potentialities.
Gerry Lobo OFM
Campaigning for the National General Election has faded as the last phase of the election is
approaching. The election heat has gradually cooled down and the voter is eagerly looking
forward for the judgment day when the result will be out on June 4. While for the
incumbent ruling party it might be clear who the winner is, the Opposition would be
positively hopeful of deriving the benefit from all the effort they have put in for the game.
Election campaign produced spectacular manifestos, particularly from the major parties in
the country announcing attractive plans with promises. How far these manifestos affected
the voters’ decision is a question apart. If one major party projected Nyay Patr, another
titled its document in a catchy phrase, Sankalp Patr. The former projected justice as the
core theme and as its philosophy, in order to protect constitutional rights, human dignity,
rights of women and so on, in order to revitalize India’s democracy which has been
damaged due to arrogance on the part of the majoritarian government at the centre. With
necessary welfare schemes attached to this philosophical visionary document, it offered
hope to millions in the darkness of democracy covering the vast nation. The latter
manifesto, on the other hand, already foreseeing a massive victory and under-handedly
preparing a road-map for governance, hoped to build a “strong government,” whatever it
implied. It put forth “India’s time,” whatever it meant, for exponential growth on the
international platform. One may have evaluated both these documents as empty promises
and “jugglery of words.” The voter would know well these manifestos were nothing but
vote-bank tactics used by well-fed and fattened political leaders whose aim was to reach
the skies in their pursuit of power and wealth by appropriating unjustly the human and
natural resources of the nation which is the right of all.
The election campaigning had been a degrading scene at times in the past months. Stone
pelting at opposition candidates, defaming names, unearthing false cases, damning the
dignity of persons, outright accusations and mud-slinging have all been the most unholy
strategies used in a holy franchise exercise in the country, all for the sake of being elected
as leaders in the national polity. What an irony! By hook or by crook one just wanted to be
the winner. Lack of a sense of decency in one’s public projection of a political head-weight
has shown character-less, wild and aggressive tendencies in the electoral fight. The
common people, on the other hand, would hardly concern themselves with truth.
The outward flare of mouthful promises would satisfy them. Religious symbols and the
politicians clad with attractive attire evoking religion would draw the attention of the weak
minds. What kind of leaders would they be electing? Hidden criminality and heart full of
lies did not matter to the voters. External spectacle by grand road-shows on flower-decked
chariots, which only expended on the bread of the poor, had become a common scenario
among political emperors, thus converting the wise to stupidity, the enlightened to
darkness of error and the educated to a blind ignorance. Democracy for all one knows was
used for electoral autocracy. Democracy, perhaps, was used as jungle rule or as sheer
autocracy, the Hitlerian way. The ordinary citizens were in confusion as to listen to the
truth or to the falsehood during the campaign.
Electioneering was not so much used for conscientizing voters about their lost rights or
about their alarmingly degrading socio-economic conditions but for evoking religious
sentiments and emotions with the use of temple images to provoke disdain towards other
religious traditions and to create an aura around the candidate of being a just and honest
person. The voters, on the other hand, could not make a distinction between the religion
they profess and the political, economic and social issues bugging the nation today. The
commoner, left without a choice, and perhaps out of fear, or just casually, might have
practiced his or her franchise obligation with no critical thought about the good of the
country. The majoritarian Hindutva party, undoubtedly, had fallen into the aforesaid
description, by successfully selling out its ideology of ‘One nation, one election, one
religion.’ This is an indication of how the incumbent government is camouflaging the policy
paralysis which it is suffering from with grandiose projects. However, since the issues are
not relevant for a vast majority of the people in our country, it matters a little to them
concerning the policy paralysis or about the unemployment issue or about unconstitutional
practices or about the electoral bond scheme scam. The Opposition parties should have
consistently and relentlessly conscientized people on all these issues. The message about
hypocrisy and autocracy in the ruling party and its government machinery should have
come to every household even before the election was announced. Perhaps, the Opposition
too is not that clean and virtuous?
With regard to the dominant manifestos which were made public to galvanize votes, the
Sankalp Patr of the majoritarian party, the so called “Modi Party” as some have been calling
it, which was released just a week prior to the first phase of the general election, was
questioned by enlightened critiques for its tardy announcement. Perhaps it was timed so
accurately that at least some voters would consume the ‘Disney-land’ promises and the
Chocolate cookies stated in the document. The highly learned critical academic analysts
had pointed out the banality of the paper and its bundle of usual generalities, lacking vision
and painting highly religious content to make Indians realize that this government is a
government of the Hindu ideology as if no other religions have a place in this land. Several
projects had been specified in the manifesto in order to create ultimately a Hindu Rashtra.
All other welfare schemes were but magical figures which were not new to the voters
because they were of the last two terms of the present dispensation though they carried
splendid titles and spectacular images. Perhaps the manifesto was constructed without
much thinking, lacking a vision, in the sure hope of winning a land slide victory, knowing
well too that the electronic voting machines were in its domain, as the Election Commission
of India being its servant, something that the voters were fully knowledgeable about. Some
quarters of the media even revealed that the Prime Minister had even ordered the civil
servants to prepare a hundred-day road map for his ‘would be’ government, and another
road-map for six months in the sure hope of returning to power. If this is so, it is a blatant
impropriety of the boss. It is jumping the zebra line of the model code of conduct
prescribed by the Election Commission. But who cares? What do the voters say on this
matter?
Though the election manifestos might be wild promises in order to woo the voters, the
Nyay Patr might be considered as a worthwhile document offering hope and a sense of
freedom from the authoritarian and autocratic rule since ten years with its acche din never
becoming a reality. The manifesto offers a path towards a progressive politics against the
backdrop of inequalities. It has an alternative with proposals to eradicate the damage
perpetuated by the Hindutva management. There is a philosophy enveloping this document
of the secularist party. Equity and justice are two pillars on which the manifesto rests with
largesse offered to citizens by way of realistic projects. It aims to safeguard democracy and
freedom for all. It does not sound shallow as the Sankalp Patr does. Equity and justice
pierce through the document with the aim of toppling the hierarchical mode of governance
and to eliminate landlordism of the few who run the show at the centre stage of Indian
democracy. A government which has been accusing the opposition on scams now stands
condemned by the world for its innumerable scams and scandals in the last ten years of its
rule such as the Electoral Bonds to mention just one of them. In sum, Nyay Patr, in the
words of Zoya Hasan, is a “manifesto where inclusivity takes centre stage.”
The election results that will be made public on June 4 will reveal which among the two
manifestos citizens would vote upon, if they had seen on their door steps. Will “Modi
fatigue” be realized by the decision of the voters or “Modi desire” is manifested in the
results the country is awaiting. God forbid, that whoever stands victor, pain and distress,
loss and despair are ever again experienced by the peace loving people of this nation. The
new government must begin from an ascending stance with taking citizens with it seriously
and believing in their potentialities rather than from a descending posture which has
crushed the human spirit in the past ten years and has spread an environment of hate and
violence in the society. Our country has witnessed the horror of hate – enough is enough!
“Wisdom of our ancestors of the 1950’s voted for an India that belonged to everyone,
where Ram and Rahim were equivalent and where their devotees together toiled to propel
their country to dazzling new heights” (Sashi Tharoor)
