Pappu shows the middle finger to a boring vote  

Even after a publicity overdrive urging Middle India to exercise its vote, it has shown its disdain for our politicians  

By Archana  

Half of urban India has been caught napping in the middle of the biggest election process in the world taking place in its own courtyard. Three out of five phases of the general election 2009 are over and the Great Indian Middle Class.  The driver of change that has powered the country's recent economic successes” has shown how clearly uninterested it is in electing its own leaders. It's shocking, especially because the run-up to the elections had seen unprecedented campaigning by NGOs, film stars (many of whom did not keep their promise to be at the polling station on the appointed day), citizen-activists and even a slew of companies, from Tata to McDonaldâs urging people to cast their ballot.

Its still a fortnight before the verdict of the elections to the 543 Lok Sabha seats is announced, but the percentages polled by the indifferent urban middle class is a result disturbing enough. Sample this: Mumbai, the commercial capital of the country and the city that witnessed massive public mobilisation after the 26/11 terror attacks, managed a figure of only 43 per cent in the phase held on April 30 (the lowest since 1977); Bangalore, the seat of the country’s IT revolution, notched up a figure of 46 per cent on April 23; Lucknow, the capital of the politically most important state of the Hindi heartland, Uttar Pradesh, disappointed with a pathetic 34.5 per cent turnout; Kanpur, an industrial centre and the second largest city of UP, managed 39 per cent; Bhopal, a politically important state capital, saw 45.1 per cent polling; and Indore, Hyderabad and Gandhinagar (L.K. Advani’s constituency) crossed the 50 per cent mark, but only just, with 50.89 per cent, 52.46 per cent and 50.82 per cent, respectively.

Definitely, these are uninspiring figures for urban India, but the election campaign, too, has been one of the most lacklustre exercises yet. India’s average voter turnout has been about 60 per cent, which places it 85th in a pool of 140 countries, tracked by the Stockholm- based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance.

So, Aamir Khan's appeal (as also those of other film and non-film stars) to all Indians to go out and vote, and the much-acclaimed pre-election campaign Jaago Re!, seem to have gone in vain, at least in urban India. Heat, of course, is a silly excuse, even though BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani has been quoted as suggesting elections in the cooler months.  

Heat strikes India equally — whether it’s an urban centre or a far-flung mofussil town. How come, then, India beyond the privileged metros has braved the scorching sun to put together impressive turnout percentages?  

Sample some more figures: Kandhamal district in Orissa, one of the poorest in the country and the one that had witnessed violence against Christians last year, recorded an impressive 65.7 per cent turnout; the insurgency-hit states of the north-east recorded much higher figures than the national average of 60 per cent. For instance, Nagaland saw 84 per cent polling and similar high figures were recorded in Manipur (66-68 per cent), Meghalaya (65 per cent) and Assam (62 per cent).  

Does this mean the dichotomy between India and Bharat is complete?
IIT-ian Jasmine Shah, 27, the man behind the Jaago Re! One Billion Votes campaign, believes it is a direct outcome of the disconnect between the voters and the political parties. “In most cases, whenever there is a high voter turnout, there is a strong connect between the leaders and the people. In rural India, there is a greater connect because of populist politics, but leaders have failed to engage the urban voter.”  

The need for this ‘connect’ wasn’t more required anywhere else than in Mumbai, which lived hell through the 26/11 terror attacks. One can’t forget the slew of images one had witnessed in the dying days of November 2008, when almost the whole of Mumbai had come out on the streets in the most visible and vocal acts of citizen activism to protest against the attacks. But what happened on April 30? Only 43 per cent of Mumbaikars cast their vote!  

There is a sense of bafflement in political circles and among NGO workers, activists, journalists, psephologists and even Bollywood stars-turned-activists over this poor voter turnout. Says Alka Abichandani, member of the Jagrut Nagrik Manch, a collective of citizen groups in Mumbai that arose in the wake of 26/11, “It’s frustrating to see that despite the terror attacks, people could be so irresponsible. The middle class and especially the younger generation feel that their vote will not make a difference — whoever wins, we will still be at a loss, so why vote.”  

Some believe that the blame lies on both the parties — the citizens as well as the politicians. Says Anasuya Menon, 21, who is a member of the Mumbai-based Rise Up India, which has been working to galvanise young people to vote, “Citizens are to be blamed for not caring enough, but politicians too have failed in engaging the electorate. They should have created more awareness about their agenda and compelled people to vote. The lack of choice must have played a big role in the low turnout.”  

Aditya Raj Kaul, co-ordinator of Delhibased Roots In Kashmir, and the moving force behind Students for Equality, agrees that the contestants haven’t been able to leave a mark on the electorate. “I live in South Delhi and the line-up of candidates there is so uninspiring that I can’t see many people turning up to vote,” he says.

The BJP has fielded Ramesh Bidhuri because he is a Gujjar and that’s the predominant community in South Delhi after delimiatation, whereas the Congress has named Ramesh Kumar, a last-minute replacement for his brother Sajjan Kumar, who lost out because of his alleged involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. None of two candidates, says Kaul, has the credentials that will inspire people to vote.  

Thats a sentiment shared by Anil Bairwal, national coordinator, Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch, which is a nationwide campaign comprising more than 1,200 NGOs and other citizen-led organisations for electoral reforms. “Politicians engage with the voters only till the time of voting,” Bairwal says. “Immediately after voting is over, they disengage themselves. They have a bigger role to play in ensuring a big voter turnout than the civil society itself. But a low voter turnout always works in their favour. Their chances of winning become brighter if only a small number of people vote.”  

Failure to engage the electorate has also ensured that Jaago Re!, despite aggressive campaigning, failed in mobilising people. Says Shah, “It is largely up to the political parties to engage the voter. Our purpose was to facilitate voter registration. For acitizens’ group, it takes a lot of time to build a ground movement and impact the voter turnout.”  

Shah's opinion is seconded by Uttam Prakash, a government servant and one of the four founding members of the Delhibased Exercise Franchise for Good Governance (EFG). “Some of the voter mobilisation campaigns started too early. Their approach failed as well — they relied heavily on the electronic media and didn’t go directly to the people. Their messages were catchy to begin with but became commonplace within a few months. It would have been better had they started 10 to 15 days before the election,” he says.

EFGs media co-ordinator, Rattan Lal, a senior lecturer at Hindu College, however, believes urban India stays away because of a lack of political training at home. “They talk about making their children management gurus but fail to perform the most basic duty of voting. In villages, people discuss politics at the chowk and sit around listening to BBC on the radio. There is a community feeling there, which is absent in urban India’s apartment culture. The middle class that stays in metros enjoys the fruits of democracy. Activism never fails, people fail.”

Lal may be right. Though urban India has clearly failed itself in this electoral exercise, the pioneering campaigners have faith that with time, things will turn round the bend. IIM-Bangalore alumnus Gaurav Mishra, a Yahoo! Fellow in Residence, Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Georgetown University, who launched the website Vote Report India, says that these initiatives may not have resulted in a significant voter turnout but they have laid the foundation for engaging India’s urban middle class in serious civic issues. He adds, “It’s a cycle we have seen in the US. In 2004, online engagement didn’t get the nomination for Howard Dean, or the presidency for John Kerry, but it set the foundation for the Netroots movement that Barack Obama tapped into in 2008. Neither the Congress, nor the BJP has a charismatic prime ministerial candidate and young Indians are disappointed with political parties. Therefore, we have seen discussions on Article 49(O) of Constitution and negative voting since the Mumbai attack. I hope things will change in 2014.”  

Some conscientious voters in Mumbai have already implemented measures to ensure voting. Rupa Naik, a director with the All India Association of Industries, Mumbai, actually took a drastic measure. told my team members that I wanted to see the indelible ink mark on their fingers, or else it would be held against them when they applied for leave,” she says. What her team did is anybodys guess.

Others are examining their own faults, such as Aneesh Bhasin, a 24-year-old photographer in Mumbai, who wanted to vote but missed the registration. œIl missed it by a day. So, theres no one I can blame but myself for not prioritising the matter. He does have a suggestion, though  PAN card holders should be allowed to vote. Even if you do not register, a PAN card implies that the government has requisite information on you, he reasons.  

With Delhi citizens set to exercise their vote on May 7, one wonders what would polling figures from the national capital tell the world. Do we really care or is it too hot outside and the prospect of a long weekend too tempting?  

With inputs from Neha Tara Mehta and Sunaina Kumar  

http://epaper.mailtoday.in/352009/epaperpdf/352009-md-hr-23.pdf