Daily Democracy and Daily Citizenship

                    Daily Democracy and Daily Citizenship

Six days to go before Delhi goes to polls for its state Assembly. Political pundits have forecast a hung assembly though some predict a victory for the BJP. Whatever is the outcome, these elections will reflect the level of maturity and thinking among the different segments of Delhi voters. Since Delhi is the seat of Parliament, these results also hold the key to determine the results of the General elections, due in the next six months. This article is not yet another survey of opinion polls as it does not attempt at crystal gazing about the next CM or the next PM. On the contrary it seeks to understand what elections are about.

Broadly speaking, Delhi voters can be classified into three groups- the government servants, the tradesmen and the university students. Outside of these three groups are the slum dwellers who do not have a decent shelter over their heads. Delhi is both a cosmopolitan and capital city of India. It is home to people from all states as the city provides job opportunities mainly in the government sector and to a lesser extent in the private sector. With five premier Central Universities –JNU, Jamia, DU, IGNOU and IIT besides half a dozen State and Private Universities, Delhi is a rich educational hub attracting students from all over India. It is also the cultural capital where institutions of classical music and dance and theatre from the South and the North, from the East and the West provide the highest quality of entertainment catering to the tastes of people coming from different parts of the country. Hence the Delhi voters’ choice that factors in diverse views, perspectives and understanding is almost a mini- national election as it is representative of the choice of the nation.

The three main parties in contention in Delhi elections are the two national parties – the Congress and the BJP and the fledgling AAP which is seen to represent the aam admi. The AAP started with a stinging bang painting the two major parties in black adapting the Old Macdonald’s nursery rhyme to make people see “here a corruption, there a corruption, everywhere a corruption,  E-I-E-I-O”.

The government servants who to a large extent have been both bribe givers and bribe receivers found it easy to join AAP so that the corruption stink did not touch them. The opinion polls gave AAP a head start and eulogized it as the giant slayer. But politics is not a black and white game where all the evil forces are pitted against all the good forces. It is like the T-20 game, mercurially changing the fortunes of the participating teams and often the upward surge gets arrested and the slide comes fast and furious. AAP has had its share of falling off the high moral ground it had claimed for itself thanks to questions -rightly or wrongly-raised about its sources of funding. The two national parties have recently begun to feel less threatened by AAP and have turned their attention to fighting each other.

Delhi voters have to be discerning in making their choice. If they vote Congress, it is an endorsement of the development that Delhi has gained over the last three innings of the Congress rule. The development is for all to see –Metro, Malls, metered gas supply, 24x7 power, fairly good water supply( though some localities have not had this benefit), quality government schools, three new State Universities(GGSIU,Ambedkar University and National Law University),besides  policies like the Baghidari scheme-to promote a meaningful partnership between the Government agencies and citizens, basically covering the provision of civic services, the Ladli scheme to enhance the social status of girl child in the society as well in the family, ensuring her proper education upto senior secondary level and  other schemes to provide genuine welfare to the marginalized groups and raise the  living standards to reasonably satisfactory levels. Such an endorsement will override all the negative criticisms against Delhi government that include corruption charges, women’s safety and rising prices, though these are not exclusively a Delhi phenomenon.  If the BJP is voted back to power after being in oblivion for 15years, it will be turning a Nelson’s eye to all the developments and rivet its attention on corruption, price rise and security of women. Given the pressing nature of day to day problems like price rise and corruption that affect the aam admi, AAP’s  rise to number one position will not be a surprise as it is reflective of the people’s anger against corruption and insecurity. AAP and BJP are one in their common thrust against the Congress government for increased power and water tariff.  But neither of the two parties has come out with their strategy as to how they would ensure uninterrupted power supply on reduced power tariff. It is one thing to make promises, but it is another thing to spell out how those tall promises do not remain just paper promises. Will Delhi buy the promises of AAP and BJP or will it be content with the present status of development ignoring corruption and price rise? Will Delhi vote for pro or anti-incumbency? What do the voters want? How mature are the voters? Will the poor and the marginalized feel that they have not been adequately provided for or will they feel happy that their lot has improved? The voters may not know how and why the prices have increased but they certainly do feel the pinch. Will they be mature enough to see through the dishonest tradesmen’s practice of hoarding and jacking up the price and making  quick money through creating artificial scarcity?

The problem with democracy is that it gives people the right to elect a government of their choice, but  this in turn makes them demand more and more from the government. But do they have a right to make wholesome demands on government without doing their duty? In mature democracy, duties go along with rights. Otherwise as H.L. Mencke says, ‘Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.’

Our democracy suffers because majority of people lack education and correspondingly lack reasoning power. People’s vote in India is not so much a reasoned choice as an emotional decision. The election manifestoes are nothing but promises to meet all their demands and the electors cast their choice in favour of those whose promises they trust. Surprisingly they have all these years acted with an instinctive alertness that puts paid to analytical or reasoned judgement.  They have not been carried away by paper freebies of bringing the moon to their doors and political manifestoes mean nothing to them. They judge by what they have received and what they can hope to receive from the party in power. All the mudslinging that leaders indulge in against their opponents may at best get a guffaw from them, but nothing beyond that.

It is a pity that no one- not even the aam admi party that claims to represent the common man- has dared to include in its  manifesto what the party expects from him .  The attitude of all leaders without exception is that of a donor to the donee. ‘I give, you receive’ is their credo and what ‘I give’ is my decision and ‘what you receive’ is not your decision. It is time to change  our political script. It is time to hold up to the people their duty rather than incite them to fight for their rights. India needs to educate its people to govern themselves before they demand from their leaders good governance. Every party claims that it is against corruption but all this talk about rooting out corruption if it comes to power is mission impossible in the absence of people failing to exercise authority over themselves. Power to the people without teaching them discipline, self control and moral and mental improvement is disastrous. The chaos and anarchy that we see around is because we have not been taught to cultivate obedience to authority whom we have elected, to practise self restraint and orderliness, to respect democracy with its principle of shared responsibility, to do unto others what we do unto ourselves.  Ralph Nader said ‘There can be no daily democracy without daily citizenship.’ It is election time and it is time for reflection.