Elections 2009: “Veil” done Congress! “Veil” done Media!

Indian News channels, the epicenter of the burgeoning Indian TV Industry, need to be adequately represented in the annual Star Plus Awards in the ‘Best Television Soap’ category. Truly, they have learnt the art of attracting viewers and generating TRPs better than the ‘Saas-Bahu’ serials of Balaji Telefims.

The Maharashtra State Assembly Elections, October 2009 have taken centre stage since 2-3 weeks now, with a unique build-up to the elections competing against the build up to the Champions League garnering the TRPs.

In the Assembly elections held every 5 years, Mumbai is represented by 36 assembly constituencies, out of a total of 288. A Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) to the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha (Legislative Assembly) is elected from each of the assembly constituencies. It is hardly a surprise that all parties focus on Mumbai for elections, Mumbai accounting for a significant share of the seats.

For the oblivious and incognizant Mumbaikars, while slum pockets in Mumbai cover a mere 6% of the land, they hold a staggering 60% of the population (2006 estimates). Dharavi, Asia's 2nd largest slum is located in central Mumbai and houses 800,000 people. The number of migrants to Mumbai from outside Maharashtra during the 1991–2001 decade was 1.12 million, which amounted to 54.8% of the net addition to the population of Mumbai (this is where the famous “Marathi manus” campaign springs up).

It is hardly a surprise then that Election Candidates conduct rallies and ask for support from the average Middle Class Mumbaikar (in the eastern suburbs and in maidans where you or me would never go), with no concern for the Upper Middle Class or the educated class of society. A day before D-Day, I inquisitively asked my servant and maid whom they intended to vote for. To my utter disbelief, they had a common answer and knew everything about the candidate they wanted to vote for! On prying further, I was told that a very senior person from Congress had personally come and given Rs.20,000/- per vote to every single family in the village / area where they reside. This is where the maximum amount of so called “Election budgets” is spent on, getting votes by hook or by crook. Does our vote really matter? Would it really make a difference to them if you or me go and cast our vote?

It’s a big “veil” cast around our eyes by the Indian Media, where TRPs and readership is all that matters. So while our TV channels and newspapers debate over “higher voter turnout” and “lower voter turnout” statistics with views from totally unrelated public figures and snapshots of leading film-stars hogging the limelight, we – the core educated intelligent “upper middle class” and “middle class” of Mumbai – take long weekends off and refrain from voting, well aware that our votes would scarcely make a difference. On the other hand, the political parties make “Mumbai migration” a chief issue for their election campaign, just to please the people from whom they will get the maximum votes, the slum dwellers. I often wonder, why hasn’t the issue of the ever rising Bangladeshis into Mumbai been highlighted by any channel or political party in their campaigns? Simply because they are the voter bank!

So what is the solution for this “epidemic”? Should we ignore our “fundamental right” and let things go on forever the way they are? Not voting doesn’t help anyone. At the same time, we need to realize that by simply exercising our right to vote does not help either. Together we need to create awareness of these facts in the minds of the 60% to 70% population in whose hands our future lies. There need to be mass awareness campaigns by leading industrial groups in India.

All large stakeholders in society – whether employers, society leaders, opinion leaders, film personalities, etc. – need to spread awareness on the various political parties, who all are standing for elections and represent these parties, from which district are they contesting, what is their background, what track record do they have in leadership, how are they capable of running our nation, amongst other details. We need to remove the farce negative image of elections from the minds of the people in general. The importance of our vote needs to come from within, and no advertisement or person can force you to come and cast your vote.

As a step forward, the government should also look at making certain educational qualifications like Masters mandatory for Electoral candidates, to bring in the next generation of educated youth to run the country. No steps or solutions are full-proof, but the above steps if implemented, should go a long way in addressing the permanent issue of lower voter turnouts amongst the educated youth in India.