By Joginder Singh Friday, 16 April , 2004, 12:38 

In the general election beginning April 20, Indians between the ages 18 and 35 years - approximately constituting of 59 percent of the 67.4 crore voters - would be exercising their franchise for the first time. 

According to one survey, only 14 percent of this segment is interested in elections or electoral politics, while 53 percent are interested onlookers. What is healthy is that some of them feel that not participating in election is almost a crime. A few of them feel that politics is rather dirty. A handful of them, according to the survey, were not sure whether Atal Bihari Vajpayee heads a BJP or a Congress government. They can be forgiven because the total readership of all papers in magazines is not even 100 million out of a population over one billion. 

It is not so only among students, but in other segments of society as well. Once I was heading an examination for promotion of sub-inspectors to inspectors in the Central Reserve Police (CRPF), which fell one day after Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary. I asked a potential promotee as to what was the role of the Mahatma Gandhi vis-a-vis the CRPF. He replied that Gandhi had done a lot for the welfare and promotion of Central Reserve Police Force, while the reality is he had nothing to do with it. 

The involvement of some politicians in scams and scandals has painted the entire political class in black colours. Actually, in the perception of the people, honesty and politics are poles apart. Some of the youth feel that the media surveys and the projections by spin doctors, give some politicians an undeserved, larger than life image. Charisma and achievements are centred around one individual, thanks to debates and media management, leaving no scope for a younger, suave leader to emerge in the election. 

General election in our country revolves around a spectacle of mass contact, either through rath yatras or roadshows, fiery speeches and slogans. Occasionally, there are ritualistic references to poverty, corruption, unemployment etc. Film stars, small screen artists, jaded actors and actresses of yester years, one-time celebrity cricketers, retired bureaucrats, singers, party hopping politicians, are all jostling for a place on the supposedly winning side. They are lined up before the media in the hope that they will be a draw to pull voters to the respective parties. The target of political parties, no doubt, is the young voter, who, they feel, would be lured into casting votes for them simply because they boast of a galaxy of celebrities and filmstars. 

Unfortunately, there is no focus on real issues, like corruption, pending projects, or simplifying rules and procedures so that the common man is saved from the harassment of bureaucratic delays and red tapism that getting one's work done from the babudom generally entails. Politics has been reduced to the theatre of the absurd, wherein voters, especially the young ones, are lured by all kind of gimmicks. 

Defectors switch parties, ostensibly for reasons of moral indignation and rage, but actually for more unprincipled and unethical reasons. A supposed communalist transforms himself into a secularist, and vice versa in one day. One political party has promised creation of one crore jobs in its manifesto. Incidentally, the present strength of the Central Government employees is just 3.2 million. The financial burden of sustaining the bureaucracy is eating up a substantial chunk of the Central revenue. Pray, how does the political party, which has proposed to create one crore job, propose to pay them? 

Obviously, political parties are economical with the truth. Promises, counter-pledges and assurances, in the game of one-upmanship and announcement of populist measures, has been the hallmark of all elections. Election 2004 would therefore be no different, except that this time the polls would also be fought in television studios, with politicians of different parties throwing mud on each other, and providing side entertainment to the voters. 

There would be a lot of heat without any focus on the real problems of the common man. The grand spectacle of democracy has become a comedy in party offices and television studios. Today, if one looks carefully, one would find that all parties stand for the same thing or nothing. For some politicians, election means merely securing a job for the next five years. 

Even the elected representatives are not willing to talk about good governance during the period they are in office, or generate fresh ideas on how to get their policies implemented. They care only about their reelection. However, voters are not as ignorant as politicians may think. Young voters want quality life. 

According to another survey, 30 percent of the people are concerned with reducing the menace of corruption, whereas 24 percent want prices to be controlled. Twenty-two percent want poverty to be reduced. Seventeen percent are asking for more jobs. Surprisingly, only three percent are interested in reducing Hindu-Muslim tension. Only one percent of those surveyed showed interest in the construction of temple at Ayodhya, and again only one percent were concerned with better India-Pakistan relations. 

Ninety two percent of the youth surveyed expressed their intention to vote, or that they are likely to vote, and only two percent said that they would not vote. Out of the two percent, 70 percent said this was because they distrust politicians and are disinterested in politics. Ten percent of the last category of two percent said that they would not vote, as there was no difference between the candidates of different political parties. 

The same survey showed that 37 percent of the youth wanted good education, 33 percent wanted good jobs, 27 percent wanted to have quality life, as against three percent who wanted fun or enjoy life. Eighty seven percent considered the forthcoming polls as very important or somewhat important. Only 10 percent did not consider the elections important, whereas three percent were undecided. However, 30 percent considered unemployment a major issue, whereas the prices of goods concerned 13 percent. 

Ten percent considered the polls unimportant and three percent had no opinion. Sixty-four percent of the youth said that the election will affect their lives and 36 percent denied any role of elections in their life. Continuing in the same vein, 86 percent felt that election will improve their lives to either some extent or to a large extent. Only 11 percent felt that voting and elections did not matter. However, one unique feature of election 2004 is that, apart from the role of candidates, the media is dictating and analysing the pace of campaign and what parties should have done or what they have not done. 

The alertness of the print and television media has led to political parties using the latest technology in disseminating information about their claims or counterclaims or other activities. The use of the latest technology and electronic voting machines has sounded the death knell of booth capturing. Of course, it does not mean that there cannot be malpractice. Conniving officials can cooperate with unscrupulous persons in enabling them to press more than one voting button on the electronic voting machines. During the past elections, where a voting machine was used, a candidate told me that he had managed to compromise the official's money or intimidation. The result was that without even participation of the actual voters, their votes were cast.

Despite all its shortcomings, Indian democracy has been among the most participatory and vibrant in the world. In 1999, 60 percent of Indians voted, as against 40 percent of the Canadian, 41 percent of the British and Germans, and 48 percent of Americans. In California, the voter turnout was only 30 percent. It is for this reason that 85 percent of the people surveyed in India feel that their votes matter. So election to bring in the governing elite who will determine the country's future is serious business. And it is time again to remind citizens to be critical and select the best while voting. 

It would be apt here to quote Robert F Kennedy: "It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time, a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centres of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

Source: Sify.com