Gujarat shows how voters do not get policy options
They say that bijli, sadak aur paani are so crucial
that politicians and governments spend sleepless nights worrying about a voter backlash every time an election looms on the horizon. They say that issues that affect the day-to-day life and economic well-being of voters decide electoral outcomes. Can we say that about India?
Till early December, it appeared as if the elections in Gujarat would be decided by voters, on the relative success or failure of the ‘development’ and ‘economic well- being’ plank being projected by Chief Minister Narendra Modi. While Modi exhorted voters to re-elect him because of his ‘excellent’ development track record, rival Congress leaders trashed his claims and said the so-called ‘development’ was a hoax on the people of Gujarat. Decibel and temper levels were high; but one hoped that, for a change, voters in India will actually decide an electoral outcome, based on bread and butter issues.
Sadly, that was not to be. Congress President Sonia Gandhi used the ‘merchant of death’ words and Modi reacted in characteristically brazen manner. It doesn’t matter who is at fault; what has happened is that the Gujarat elections is again not about the economic policies of Narendra Modi, but the divide between Hindus & Muslims. That’s a real tragedy for Indian democracy that once again, sectarian, divisive and emotive issues have been encouraged to lord over economic policies.
It keeps happening again and again. In Uttar Pradesh, the assembly elections concluded last summer, were purely about caste identities and no party even bothered to project a vision or a set of policies for the state.
This must be a singular failure of Indian politicians and policy makers – the inability (either unwillingly or deliberately) to make economic policies the subject of electoral debate. Chandrababu Naidu tried it in Andhra Pradesh and lost – primarily because Congress offered ‘free’ electricity’ and a host of other freebies that are not sustainable. Naidu has now started paying the Congress back in its ‘own coin’ (to borrow a term from Budhadev Bhattacharya!) since elections are looming again in the state. In West Bengal, Budhadev did try hard and talk the language of development. But now, West Bengal is all about crypto-fascist Marxist thugs recapturing Nandigram and the comrades in Kolkata offering an olive branch to hurt Mulsims by hounding Tasleema Nasreen out of the state. The bigger failure is: no political party is even trying to rise above this farce. Will India ever really mature as a democracy?
They say that bijli, sadak aur paani are so crucial
that politicians and governments spend sleepless nights worrying about a voter backlash every time an election looms on the horizon. They say that issues that affect the day-to-day life and economic well-being of voters decide electoral outcomes. Can we say that about India?Till early December, it appeared as if the elections in Gujarat would be decided by voters, on the relative success or failure of the ‘development’ and ‘economic well- being’ plank being projected by Chief Minister Narendra Modi. While Modi exhorted voters to re-elect him because of his ‘excellent’ development track record, rival Congress leaders trashed his claims and said the so-called ‘development’ was a hoax on the people of Gujarat. Decibel and temper levels were high; but one hoped that, for a change, voters in India will actually decide an electoral outcome, based on bread and butter issues.
Sadly, that was not to be. Congress President Sonia Gandhi used the ‘merchant of death’ words and Modi reacted in characteristically brazen manner. It doesn’t matter who is at fault; what has happened is that the Gujarat elections is again not about the economic policies of Narendra Modi, but the divide between Hindus & Muslims. That’s a real tragedy for Indian democracy that once again, sectarian, divisive and emotive issues have been encouraged to lord over economic policies.
It keeps happening again and again. In Uttar Pradesh, the assembly elections concluded last summer, were purely about caste identities and no party even bothered to project a vision or a set of policies for the state.
This must be a singular failure of Indian politicians and policy makers – the inability (either unwillingly or deliberately) to make economic policies the subject of electoral debate. Chandrababu Naidu tried it in Andhra Pradesh and lost – primarily because Congress offered ‘free’ electricity’ and a host of other freebies that are not sustainable. Naidu has now started paying the Congress back in its ‘own coin’ (to borrow a term from Budhadev Bhattacharya!) since elections are looming again in the state. In West Bengal, Budhadev did try hard and talk the language of development. But now, West Bengal is all about crypto-fascist Marxist thugs recapturing Nandigram and the comrades in Kolkata offering an olive branch to hurt Mulsims by hounding Tasleema Nasreen out of the state. The bigger failure is: no political party is even trying to rise above this farce. Will India ever really mature as a democracy?
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