More of chaos than order despite ECI guidelines

India is considered to be the mother of democracy. It refers to a system where citizens elect their representatives through elections. As per the Constitution, Indian society and citizens reflect democratic values like equality, liberty, fraternity, secularism, and justice. To ensure that the citizens elect their representatives an independent constitutional body called the Election Commission of India has been constituted and once the poll notification is announced, the entire administrative machinery is supposed to work as per the guidelines of the ECI.

The ECI has laid down specific guidelines regarding the expenditure to be incurred by a candidate, how the campaign should take place, how religion and caste should not be used for the purpose of elections. As far as the ruling party is concerned, the campaign for Lok Sabha elections or state assembly should be focused, on the programs, their progress report of last five years and their vision for the next five years.

The opposition too is supposed to focus on exposing the omissions and commissions of the government, the scams or irregularities that had taken place and how it had impacted the growth of the state or country.

But what needs to be pondered over is, are we really following those guidelines. The answer would be a big ‘No.’ There appears to be more of chaos than order. Lets us take a look at the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. The opposition and the ruling BJP have locked horns on the issue of reservations and who destroyed Constitution and who will change the Constitution. While the BJP says its Modi’s guarantee to see that there is no religion based reservations, the manifesto of the Congress party says they will remove the cap on reservation percentage and give reservations to the Muslims.

When the Constitution was drafted, it was felt that since the weaker sections of the society need handholding, they should be given reservations in government jobs and education so that they can be uplifted and level playing ground can be created. It had clearly stated that there shall be no religion based reservations.

It was also felt that reservations should be for a period of ten years. This meant that the government should take up this as the priority program. But 75 years down the lane we are still fighting elections over the issue of reservations.

Congress party screams that if BJP comes to power, they will do away with reservations and bring in new Constitution. The BJP says that the Constitution was badly tampered and amended over 100 times in last 75 years and alleges that the process began with the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and was continued by Indira Gandhi, the grandmother of “Shehzada,” (Rahul Gandhi) and his father Rajiv Gandhi.

Rebutting Rahul’ claim that 400 paar is game plan to change the Constitution, Prime Minister Narendra Modi says that NDA even now is close to 400 seats and if that was their agenda it would have done so in the last five years. He said it was a deliberate and misleading propaganda by the Congress party.

To counter Modi, Rahul picks up the issue of former PM Deve Gowda’s son Revenna who is facing allegations of sex scam. Rahul says saving rapists is Modi’s guarantee. The heart of the matter is that the narrative in the elections got derailed and has gone down to the level of personal attacks and in the process, the common man whose votes really matter is forgotten. The Congress party which is just contesting over 300 seats feels that it is now close to the throne and the Rahul’s jibes on Modi will get the party enough votes to form the government.

It is really ironical that the opposition does not come up with effective criticism of the government, its hits and bounces. While the BJP feels that the socio political polarisation will give them an edge, the Congress feels that they can cash in on the caste divide. Every party feels that elections can be won on the basis of emotion, caste, religion and family image.

The BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi keep talking about ‘Vikasit Bharat,’ by 2047 which aims at transforming India into a fully developed nation. The BJP sums up its ten year performance as a blend of fiscal prudence. If we take a quick look at the state of economy in the past ten years, it becomes clear the growth of GDP over 7 percent despite Covid-19 pandamic is admirable. But what needs to observed here is that that public investment has been moderate. The economic growth can be propelled on when there is steep increase in private investment.

Another notable point is that while the organised sector has bounced back after the pandemic, the unorganised sector is still badly struggling. Employment continues to be slow and low and the rural income had witnessed a negative impact. Following the pandemic, the government policies and the increase in repo rate had led to steep increase in prices.

There has been an increase in self employment but the promise of one crore jobs which the BJP had promised in 2014 did not happen. It also appears to have fallen short on asset monetisation. On the brighter side, the LIC had gone public as Centre had sold 3 percent of its stake. In the field of infrastructure, certainly, one has to admit that India has seen spectacular growth. It was really put on fast track and such speed was never seen in the last seven decades. Road network had developed at break neck speed and the credit for getting things done should go to the Union Minister Nitin Gadkari.

Another significant achievement is undoubtedly the way mode of payments has been revolutionised by introducing digital payment. This had pushed the concept of cashless economy. But on the flip side, it has not reduced the black money as it was expected. Statistics show that cash in circulation has doubled after demonetization.

GST was brought in to replace complex taxation system but the different tax slabs had not given the desired results and had led to increase in the prices of various commodities. The petroleum products are one such example.

However, the government feels that this anti incumbency factor would be overcome by the welfare schemes like Ayushman Bharat, PM Ujwala Yojana, Jan Aushadi, open defecation free villages, Har Ghar Nal Jal etc would help BJP to achieve a hat trick. But unfortunately, the discussion on the hits and miss of Modi government has not become the talk of the town.

Now let us come to the second aspect of polls, the role of ECI. While ECI has a monumental task, it should not only be fair but also appear to be fair. But there is criticism that the ECI was not exercising its powers as effectively it should and could. People recall the days of T N Seshan and feel it should be quick in taking decisions since it is the ultimate authority to ensure free and fair polls.

Take for example the case of Andhra Pradesh. In 2019 elections, it had replaced the Chief Secretary overnight. But now despite several representations by the opposition parties including state BJP and certain incidents of violence and the failure of the administration to take necessary security measures during the first joint meeting of opposition alliance addressed by the Prime Minister, and the refusal of the state government to use the panchayat staff to distribute the old age pensions at door step for two consecutive months April and May, the ECI had not taken any decision to change the Chief Secretary and the DGP.

This raises questions on whether the voter in Andhra Pradesh would be really able to exercise his vote in a free and fair manner? The opposition parties are keeping their fingers crossed and feel that since politics is a dynamic situation, ‘they will soon see ache din.’