The 16 Lok Sabha elections are finally over. Spread over as many as nine phases this was India’s longest electoral exercise in recent memory and perhaps the average voter turnout has also beaten previous records. But beyond the statistical dimensions of this massive exercise and regardless of the final outcome, this has surely been a watershed election in which money power and media power or the nexus or fusion of the two reached a whole new height, the ‘model code of conduct’ became an object of brazen mockery and majoritarian demagogy dominated the electoral discourse like never before.
The Election Commission and its notion of a free and fair poll have taken a huge beating in this election. In the name of cleansing the election process, the EC raised the expenditure limit for every candidate to seven million rupees. But when parties are allowed to spend any amount of money, the limit set for individual candidates just loses all meaning. The amount of money the BJP has spent in marketing its dream theme of ‘Modi Sarkar’ will easily run into scores of billions of rupees. Instead of finding ways to curb this massive domination of money power, the EC goes on raising nomination fees and expenditure limits, making the electoral battle increasingly unequal for parties and individuals who have to rely on the people for funding their election campaigns. The EC in this election seized over Rs 331 crore, 225 lakh litres liquor and 1.85 lakh kg drugs.
Another rule that became meaningless is the requirement to stop electioneering 48 hours before the end of voting. The BJP systematically circumvented and violated this rule by running prominent frontpage advertisements on newspapers on polling days, releasing its poll manifesto right on the first polling day and with Narendra Modi himself holding a lotus-waving media session right outside his polling booth and issuing a televised message to the people on the last polling day.
Even more disturbing has been the way BJP leaders were allowed to get away with their vicious hate speeches. The ban on Amit Shah’s hate campaign came pretty late after he had already revealed his sordid Muzaffarnagar game plan, but the EC quickly revoked the ban after Shah tendered a so-called apology and the master of hate speech thanked the EC with his mischievous description of Azamgarh as a terror haven. Modi himself time and again injected the ‘anti-Bangladeshi’ vitriol in his election speeches even going to the extent of alleging that rhinos were being conspiratorially eliminated in Assam to accommodate Bangladeshi settlers. All this became the new ‘normal’ level of BJP electioneering with the EC being a helpless spectator.
Derogatory remarks about dalits and women are also becoming part and parcel of India’s election discourse. Mercifully, Mulayam Singh’s remark trivialising rape as ‘mistakes boys are prone to make’ attracted all-round condemnation. So did Abu Azmi’s decree calling for death penalty for rape victims or Baba Ramdev’s anti-dalit misogynistic comment accusing Rahul Gandhi of celebrating honeymoon in dalit homes. But the important issue of Snoopgate, of the Modi administration in Gujarat using the state apparatus to carry out the illegal task of snooping on a woman, was not subjected to the kind of public scrutiny it deserved. The Congress and BJP made it look like a trivial private matter of a few individuals with the UPA eventually giving up on the idea of ordering a central probe.
There can be no overstating the point that years of pro-corporate policies and brazen pro-corporate governance have pushed the country into an acute all-round crisis. The scams and the utter failure of the Congress-led UPA government have created a huge disillusionment and vacuum in the country. The euphoria created by the AAP’s spectacular debut in the Assembly elections in Delhi in last winter could not sustain itself for long, especially after Kejriwal’s ill-conceived resignation after 49 days in power. With the fullest backing of the RSS and the entire spectrum of the corporate media, the BJP has stepped into this vacuum, seeking to present itself as the alternative and market Modi as the magic solution to all that ails India. The CPI(ML) and other forces of people’s struggles have run a vigorous and spirited campaign against the policies that have resulted in the current crisis as well as against the BJP’s divisive and despotic agenda, upholding the progressive vision of a pro-people shift in policies and priorities. While the Congress seems all set to be voted out of power, the conflict between the BJP’s real agenda and the issues and interests of the Indian people is bound to sharpen in the coming days.
