The Hindu Business Line : Once more to the hustings

This year is "election year" in the sense that a new Lok Sabha will have to be chosen by the people, an event which ought to represent the very heartbeat of any republic worth its salt. There is little doubt that the drill will be repeated once more just like in the past. And yet there will be difference in the holding of the exercise yet again, a difference which actually indicates a sea-change in the psyche of the nation with serious implications for the future.

ELECTION VIEW

Ever since 1947, when the British imperial yoke was taken off the neck of the subcontinent, elections to State Assemblies and the Lok Sabha have usually been treated as festive occasions, the celebration being focussed on the "exercise" of the franchise which, to the hitherto subjugated population, was nothing short of being a momentous event. Election day was of course a holiday, and there was happiness and hope all around, particularly among the young and the middle-aged who had only one thought in their mind on the day, namely, that they would be choosing the political party and candidate who would represent them in the highest law-making assemblies of the nation.

For the older people, the elections were much more than a holiday because they had spent their formative and productive years in a political system where the laws were not of their making but were imposed on them by alien masters. To this lot, therefore, elections comprised serious business, seen more as an instrument with which to mould the system of governance in the light in which the voters preferred, which was a huge leap forward from the days when Englishmen determined what was good or undesirable for the populace.

THE EMERGENCY

The 1977 Lok Sabha elections - following Indira Gandhi's Emergency - were the first time when the hustings were seen as a tool of deliverance from a nationwide regime that was perceived by the majority of the people (as indicated by the results) to be against the "good" of the nation. That election was seen primarily as a life-and-death contest against an unpopular regime led by a politician who, on her part, strongly felt that whatever she was doing in terms of clamping down on the civil liberties of the people at large was for the benefit of the country.

That Lok Sabha election was probably a watershed in the 62- year-old history of free and fair adult franchise in India. Before it, the exercise was seen as a gift to the people of the republic and there was more or less a continuation of past political trends. The New India had yet to step on to the platform as it were. Since 1977 the scene has changed dramatically. New faces emerged into prominence (who in turn have been eased out by newer faces today) bringing with them into the portals of legislative bodies, at the State and national levels, a totally new outlook on political ideals and behaviour.

NEW POLITICS

There is a big debate on whether the "new politics" is producing results for the betterment of the country or whether there is something fundamentally wrong with both the practice and the practitioners, reducing the entire franchise-exercise into a pointless ritual having nothing to do with nation-building as such. Indeed, a major point of concern today is that elections are no longer an instrument of choosing good leaders for the next five years but have come to be taken for granted by the vast majority of the people. If the vote is at all seen as an instrument in the onerous task of nation-building, it is used more often than not as a means of registering protest against indefensible acts on the part of politicians and Governments rather than putting the capable in the driver's seat. The Lok Sabha elections later this year promise not to be different.

RANABIR RAY CHOUDHURY