The general elections that will be held soon has an interesting syncretism. It is the most scrutinised, followed and debated general elections till date for obvious non-political reasons. The age of social media has meant that a large section of the population who already had an opinion now have the means to express, debate and discuss these opinions. This should have meant better focus on priority areas, better questioning of candidates and political parties thus calling their bluff and separating facts from rhetoric.
This brings me to the second element of this mixture- greater discussion and scrutiny has not lead to better questioning but only blind gobbling up of rhetoric and vitriol dished out by politicians from every side. An honest analysis of their actions till date is completely absent, they are not asked any questions and so they control the narrative while social media merely becomes a platform for propaganda and campaigning. Although technology has provided us the means to change the entire process, we are only using it to follow the old process of one-way communication. Television and Newspaper outlets are only interested in endless debate amongst themselves on pointless poll predictions, catchphrases and anchor-led outrage. But it clearly satisfies our desperate need to participate, engage and express our opinion even if it makes little difference in what policies are pursued by the next government.
The elections are less than two months away and no party has a clear road map for the country in any area. Apart from broad and vague terms like empowerment, strong leadership, unity, inclusive growth etc I have not heard of a clear plan. I hear about visions and goals but that too in vague terms. I have not heard anyone speak of improving learning outcomes in schools, no one speaks of improving India's abysmal performance in Research and Development. How do they intend to balance environment protection & economic growth? What are the plans for increasing agricultural productivity, wages and addressing deterioration of land and water quality? What is the stand on climate change? What to do about infrastructure bottlenecks that is the obvious reason for India's failing growth miracle? Foreign affairs has never been an election issue in India and so those who speak about a vision for India have nothing to say on India's relations with China, USA, Latin America and multilateral bodies. Skill development is fine but how to achieve it when existing schools, colleges and universities are badly managed, seen as only cash cows by private owners and students pass out with degrees that have less value than the paper on which their certificates are printed?
A popular area of "vision" is governance with each party claiming governance as its own great strength. But I do not hear anything on devolution of powers to urban local bodies, improving their funding and functioning, I hear nothing about solving the conflict of authority in each urban area that has a municipality, a district administration, a development authority, state government control and on top of it all dependent on central government for funds, permission and development activities! A case in point is my own district of Ernakulam where constructing the Metro required permission from the centre- a permission that came almost immediately after the Congress led government came to power in the state although the project was being mooted for over 4 years during which the estimated cost almost doubled- funds from the state, centre and external loans. Right now, traffic congestion is worse than ever but alternate routes have not been developed or are under developed since no one knows who should do it- DMRC the metro constructors, state government, development authority or the municipality!
Of course, these are not stuff that a single legislator can deal with and will require the government to do it. So shouldn't atleast parties come out with answers for these issues? Shouldn't those hoping to and with highest probability of forming the next government take the initiative in addressing these concerns? The funniest thing is that it is not clear whether this is an issue for municipal, state or central elections. This election is supposed to be one where urban and young voters will make a difference. How is their participation supposed to make a difference when the vote is not a well-considered decision but one based on a lot of misinformation, rhetoric, vitriol and obfuscation?
Elections used to be and will continue to be decided on the basis of old allegiances to caste, religion and rhetoric because we have not found any other grounds to "fight" an election. Money and muscle power will still be decisive factors while social media's role, no matter how far it is hyped up by technocrats or aspiring leaders, will be limited to mere one-way channels. Politician's are not willing to layout a set of goals, plans to achieve them, measurement criteria and guarantee that if they fail due to lack of effort, they will resign. The clear map, objectives and guidelines laid down by the Millennium Development Goals prove that it is possible to back up a vision with clearly defined objectives, intermediate targets and measurement criteria. But our politician are asking us to trust them blindly on hollow words like empowerment, inclusion, vision, secularism and transparency. So let us take part in this exercise, let us be proud of our democracy, our vote and our government without having a clear idea what this vote means, what the government intends to and what the government can and should do- something which those intending to form the government too are not quite sure of.
This brings me to the second element of this mixture- greater discussion and scrutiny has not lead to better questioning but only blind gobbling up of rhetoric and vitriol dished out by politicians from every side. An honest analysis of their actions till date is completely absent, they are not asked any questions and so they control the narrative while social media merely becomes a platform for propaganda and campaigning. Although technology has provided us the means to change the entire process, we are only using it to follow the old process of one-way communication. Television and Newspaper outlets are only interested in endless debate amongst themselves on pointless poll predictions, catchphrases and anchor-led outrage. But it clearly satisfies our desperate need to participate, engage and express our opinion even if it makes little difference in what policies are pursued by the next government.
The elections are less than two months away and no party has a clear road map for the country in any area. Apart from broad and vague terms like empowerment, strong leadership, unity, inclusive growth etc I have not heard of a clear plan. I hear about visions and goals but that too in vague terms. I have not heard anyone speak of improving learning outcomes in schools, no one speaks of improving India's abysmal performance in Research and Development. How do they intend to balance environment protection & economic growth? What are the plans for increasing agricultural productivity, wages and addressing deterioration of land and water quality? What is the stand on climate change? What to do about infrastructure bottlenecks that is the obvious reason for India's failing growth miracle? Foreign affairs has never been an election issue in India and so those who speak about a vision for India have nothing to say on India's relations with China, USA, Latin America and multilateral bodies. Skill development is fine but how to achieve it when existing schools, colleges and universities are badly managed, seen as only cash cows by private owners and students pass out with degrees that have less value than the paper on which their certificates are printed?
A popular area of "vision" is governance with each party claiming governance as its own great strength. But I do not hear anything on devolution of powers to urban local bodies, improving their funding and functioning, I hear nothing about solving the conflict of authority in each urban area that has a municipality, a district administration, a development authority, state government control and on top of it all dependent on central government for funds, permission and development activities! A case in point is my own district of Ernakulam where constructing the Metro required permission from the centre- a permission that came almost immediately after the Congress led government came to power in the state although the project was being mooted for over 4 years during which the estimated cost almost doubled- funds from the state, centre and external loans. Right now, traffic congestion is worse than ever but alternate routes have not been developed or are under developed since no one knows who should do it- DMRC the metro constructors, state government, development authority or the municipality!
Of course, these are not stuff that a single legislator can deal with and will require the government to do it. So shouldn't atleast parties come out with answers for these issues? Shouldn't those hoping to and with highest probability of forming the next government take the initiative in addressing these concerns? The funniest thing is that it is not clear whether this is an issue for municipal, state or central elections. This election is supposed to be one where urban and young voters will make a difference. How is their participation supposed to make a difference when the vote is not a well-considered decision but one based on a lot of misinformation, rhetoric, vitriol and obfuscation?
Elections used to be and will continue to be decided on the basis of old allegiances to caste, religion and rhetoric because we have not found any other grounds to "fight" an election. Money and muscle power will still be decisive factors while social media's role, no matter how far it is hyped up by technocrats or aspiring leaders, will be limited to mere one-way channels. Politician's are not willing to layout a set of goals, plans to achieve them, measurement criteria and guarantee that if they fail due to lack of effort, they will resign. The clear map, objectives and guidelines laid down by the Millennium Development Goals prove that it is possible to back up a vision with clearly defined objectives, intermediate targets and measurement criteria. But our politician are asking us to trust them blindly on hollow words like empowerment, inclusion, vision, secularism and transparency. So let us take part in this exercise, let us be proud of our democracy, our vote and our government without having a clear idea what this vote means, what the government intends to and what the government can and should do- something which those intending to form the government too are not quite sure of.
