The ongoing elections in India is the most critical Lok Sabha polls in a generation. Yes, we’ve all heard such trite hyperbole each time our 900-million strong electorate goes to polls, it is like the concocted excitement one may witness before 543 high-profile UFC brawls. The 2019 voting season is witnessing political aspirants with entrenched ideologies being more disparate, more polarized than ever in recent memory. Hence, with the ‘idea of India’ at stake this time around, this Lok Sabha elections may actually be deserving of the ‘once-in-a-generation’ hype.
Over the past five years, provocative questioning of one’s pro- and anti-national credentials has taken centre-stage, rendering our country’s institutions and holy scriptures, and even the Constitution, susceptible. The election will determine our nation’s trajectory - will we add fuel to the scorching fire of hate and division, or will we, by opposing this trend, inundate our lands with the cooling waters of harmony in plurality? Anyone who believes in preserving the foundations of our democracy must not only take out time to vote but ensure that their vote actually counts.
Elections, in our stratified nation riddled with class, caste, gender, and a myriad of hierarchies, stand out as the sole moment in which we are all equal. A homeless nomadic woman in Yadagir has the same individual power on election day as the state's Home Minister. The revolutionary notion that every person merits a vote regardless of identity or educational background makes the Indian framework robust and our modern history vivacious.
The war for freedom did not end in 1947. Instead, it merely shifted from colonial to democratic confines. To realise the equality and liberty enshrined in our Constitution, we must demand that the privileges many of us take for granted reaches every Indian, from the beaches of Nicobar to the heights of the Himalayas: housing for all; universal healthcare; free education up to graduate level; and a basic, liveable income. Candidates willing to prioritize the improvement of human life as true development should be the ones we send to Parliament, and not those whose only qualifications stem from their assets, influence or family backing.
If such dreams are to materialize into ground reality, each individual must realize that binary political options both erode the very ethos of Indian democracy and leave the general public politically ‘lazy.’ In other words, the discourse today should not be relegated to the selection of one or the other potential PM candidates, like much of the mainstream media makes it out to be. Instead, the dialogue should be a more localized one where every citizen is well-informed to select an aspiring Member of Parliament (MP) who best represents the needs of the specific constituency.
A quick glance at the list of candidates reveals that each MP constituency has several candidates to choose from (57 in Belagavi!), all occupying diverse positions on the political spectrum, with unique experiences and dreams. If we can’t find a good enough candidate to uphold the democratic values we treasure most, then perhaps enough time has not been spent searching and researching. A society’s vulnerable sections, rather than self-serving ones, must take primacy during the voting process. And that is especially true from the vantage of us, the English-speaking, upwardly-mobile, home-owning types. Those who have gained more from society have the moral responsibility to give back more as well.
Hence, instead of voting on ‘how would this candidate benefit me?’, it is time to vote based on ‘how this candidate would benefit the poor, marginalized, and weakest amongst us.’ Such a holistic vision would lay the building blocks for an egalitarian, model society.
Election coverage in Karnataka over the past month or so has been disappointing and farcical, since substance has been completely stripped from the process. Take Mandya, for example. The two frontrunners are ideologically-vapid novices who have no social service experience, and an even weaker acuity of grassroots Mandya realities, let alone solutions. Unfortunately, their irrelevant attributes like kinship to known leaders, popular last names, silver-screen glamour, and financial backing have catapulted them into the contest to enter Parliament. What is even more shocking is that the mainstream media appears to deal with them both with kid gloves, throwing soft and irrelevant questions that cater to their mudslinging gusto rather than hard-hitting questions that help the citizens understand the candidates’ true intentions and vision.
Our democratic duties do not take a five-year hiatus on May 23, 2019, after the Lok Sabha results are announced. Instead, that date when power shifts non-violently, reminds us that our struggle to uphold the core principles of our democracy such as tolerance, diversity, secularism, and socialism is imperative and ongoing. As John F. Kennedy once declared, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.’
The author is an activist and actor fighting for art, equality and social justice.