The nation just concluded its three state elections deemed as the big three clashes that are a prelude to the bigger clash and verdict of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. As a young adult, I had stopped reading about elections last year. But the news, the headlines, and the analysis was a sheer reminder as to how oblivious we have become to the true intentions of the whole phenomenon of elections within the even more bigger, grander and ambitious phenomenon of democracy.
What was imagined as something that would change the lives and livelihoods of people by giving themselves the ‘power to elect’ their representatives, however remains a distorted dream. The aspirations of majority of India’s population remains unattainable, their opportunities incomparably unequal and their scope for social mobility close to nil.
Who would have imagined this about the so called ‘representative’ form of government which is ‘by’, ‘for’ and ‘of’ the people, supposed to touch the grassroots by way of a strong network of localised elected representatives. What is surprising is how it has led to a whole nation of indifferent humans. The indifference of the poor may be justifiable in terms of absence of resources, exposure and social capital. But that of the working class and most importantly the youth is disturbing. The silence of the country that just surpassed China to be the most populous country in the world hits us hard.
However let’s try and solve the myriad puzzle as to why people remain so indifferent. The lack of unity remains a starkly upsetting reality. It is hard to miss the high degree of social and economic fragmentation forged to divide people into a multitude of boxes allowing no sense of unity or scope for collective identity.
Moreover, we are somehow fed in the idea that we need to snatch something from our neighbour in order to succeed. We are all so invested in the race that we don’t notice how rigged and unfair the race is and how we are all destined to lose. If only we are taught to hold the state accountable for the bare minimum.
The inaccessibility to information may be another big reason. While running from brick to wall to make their ends meet, people are denied the basic sense of enquiry or the time and resourcefulness to investigate or make sense of their deprivations and exclusions. In this context, it is less surprising how people who are perennially unhappy about the quality of their lives, the opportunities available to them, and the injustices they face yet in the season of elections, wait in lines to vote for a symbol or persona.
Some other forms of emotions and sympathies take over which are masked in religious or caste dimensions but are in reality about greater personal loyalties that are easier to justify by religion or caste but has more to do with livelihood, survival and a sense of dignity.
If we are wondering what is the cure to all this, the answer is what democracy had offered at one point ‘the people’. The power of people’s movement and that of collective mobilisation is not unseen nor unheard in India, the world’s largest democracy. However, it has somehow been forgotten. People need to question the jargons and figures thrown at them in the name of answers to their expectations of the economy, opportunity and basic standard of living.
There needs to be a mechanism to break down and make sense of the huge sums of money committed by the government under various schemes, policies and resolutions, and account for and ensure the egalitarian redistribution of the taxpayer’s money.
While Nehru took pride in how India was awaking to life and freedom at the stroke of midnight, seventy years down the lane, it feels like India went back to a deep slumber soon after. The slumber could be justified by the faith it had placed on it own visionary ‘state’ that took over to mould the future of the nation that they had striven so hard to liberate.
The Indian ‘state’ or ‘system’ that took over is yet to meet the expectations that its people had so confidently placed on it. If not release the millions of Indians from deprivation, let’s at least hope that the state and the system is not involved in carrying out a vicious cycle of exploitation.