The (not so) Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Long (overdue) post. Read at your own risk.

I miss the general elections in India. I miss the sight of the largest democracy in the world thundering over the slumbering junta and bringing live shows of its comedians and villains (most of them playing both at the same time) to the nearest galli, circle, playground, and railway station. For free. Sometimes, even with a gift or two if you are considered (un)worthy enough. I miss the loud cheering and jeering, yelling & squealing of everybody and anybody even remotely associated with the elections.

I also miss the self-important journalists trying yet again to get their equations right, on TV and on paper, everyday and every sleepless night. I miss watching every TV channel and newspaper, suitably compensated by various political parties for their outstanding journalistic service, parading its own number-theory experts, psychologists and psephologists who claim to have understood the most ununderstandable of all species - the Indian voter. I miss seeing them go wrong election after mid-term election and still not give up!

And I also miss taking an active part in this whole mela! Of course, voting is one of the ways to take an active part in this democratic process. If you can vote, you must vote. And not only must you cast only your vote but also make sure nobody else casts your vote. I haven’t had a chance to vote since I did a few years ago back in Delhi. And I don’t think I will get a chance to vote again in India in the foreseeable future. I really miss it.

But what I meant by ‘active part’ was actually participating in the electioneering process itself! Yes, even before I attained the voting age, I had been playing my part as a volunteer. For BJP, of course. I really miss those days of crazy activity which involved putting up posters on every blank and non-blank wall, going door to door and distributing pamphlets, putting up buntings along the streets only to find them torn or missing the next morning, crying hoarse at the Congress hooligans (when they weren't around) for taking them apart, and putting them up all over again till we ran out of buntings, roaming the whole city in “on-election-duty” autos throwing handbills, screaming into the portable loudspeakers, getting chased from hostile areas, putting up makeshift “stages” for the leaders’ public speeches at all hours of day and night (one such night stands out when we had LK Advani at Chamundi Circle in Mysore – he showed up at midnight for an hour’s speech and there was not a single empty spot in that big circle and the buildings around it – and I got a chance to shake his hand as he was getting back into his car!). We would roam around the streets with copies of voter list in hand making sure the voters were accounted for, urging them to vote in general, requesting them to vote for our candidate in particular, and advising them to vote as early in the day as possible to defeat the illegal voters (we used to do this after the deadline for public canvassing was over!). And on Election Day, we would gather at the polling booths, sit at a rickety table holding a copy of voter list and “take attendance” of our voters, and spy on the other camps! At the end of the day, we would go back to the party office or the candidate’s home and soak in the news pouring in from other polling booths, areas, and cities. We would sit around the radio and the TV to gather news and analysis from folks who pretended to know everything. By the end of it all, we could barely speak because of all the yelling and screaming! And then the results would come in…. The voters would have spoken. And some of us would have shut up.

Only to start all over again! The elections were never too far those days what with all the jokers assembling in Delhi at the same time and making a tamasha of the whole expensive exercise the entire nation went through for months!

The election campaign scenario is probably much different now. Election Commission has robbed much of its charm, probably with a good reason. The political parties don’t pull governments now as frequently as they used to. But it still is the same rotten game of numbers, it still is the horse trade it always was, and you still can’t tell which party is in which new alliance. Nobody remembers the party symbols anymore. The Congress is still monopolized by the family whose feet its ‘leaders’ are eternally lined up to lick! Then there is a new spineless ‘Secular Front’ or ‘Third Front’ or whatever the flavor of the season is coming up every election consisting of the same old power brokers who have no ideological agenda whatsoever! There is no greater danger than these parties coming together at election time and making a mockery of democracy. Each one of them has a PM-aspirant who will go to any extent to grab that chair.

Sadly, even the BJP has failed to escape the rot that is part of the political landscape. Its moral base has eroded as its power base has expanded. There was a time when BJP leaders asserted that they would rather win only a handful of seats than compromise on its principles. It really used to be a great organization. But somewhere down the road, some leaders got tired of sitting in the opposition, ran out of their patience, and acceded to the younger leadership that argued that nothing can be achieved without power, and to achieve that power, certain principles can be and should be compromised. Good organizers became bad politicians. Powerful people with questionable backgrounds came into the party’s fold. The party tasted success. The decline began.

However, in spite of all this, I believe BJP is still better than other parties. BJP still has a leadership that is stronger, more committed to the welfare of Indians, and more dependable than others. BJP perhaps is still the only party with a true nationalistic agenda in spite of all the negative things the party has become famous for in recent times.

It is our misfortune that we are forced to pick the least evil of all available parties. Every party is corrupt to a certain degree, and every party has its share of fanatics, criminals and cheats. Whether you vote or not, someone will win. Vote we must because that is our fundamental responsibility towards our nation for which our forefathers have laid down their lives. If we don’t vote, we have no right to complain about the sorry state of things. We might as well vote for the party that is most likely to lead us better and/or harm the least!

At this point, I believe BJP is that party. You may not agree with me. You don’t have to. But I hope you will at least agree that you must vote.

The voting starts today.