One of my earliest memories of childhood is 1989 general elections.
It was electrifying even for a kid like me. I remember accompanying my
mother to the polling booth, and me requesting her to cast her vote in
favor of “Chakka Chhap” (erstwhile Janta Dal). I am talking about
elections which brought Mr. VP Singh to the Prime minister’s chair. I
am talking about the time when every kid in my locality heard and later
on chanted “Gali Gali mein Shor hai... Rajiv Gandhi Chor hai”. We kids
used to sing all those election slogans without even knowing what the
meant or what was their purpose.
Fortunately or unfortunately, when I was growing up Indian Political scenario was going through lots of turmoil. Reservation, Bofors, Globalization, just to name a few were making headlines. Thanks to constant access to magazines like Maya, India today and Kadambini.. I developed a keen interest in Indian Politics.
For more than 20 years, I have been following the Great Indian Democracy Tamasha. Born in Bihar, means you are politically aware and sensitive. Since then I have been a keen witness to 7 general elections and 5 state elections in Bihar. Though unfortunately, I am yet to cast my own vote.
So you can call me a self declared politics veteran :) ... Latest election I witnessed was Bihar State assembly election 2010. I am looking forward to West Bengal State Assembly Elections 2011.
Elections are no doubt the biggest festival of democracy. You can compare elections to “Samudra Manthan”. In this Samudra Manthan, People are the ocean, Sur Asurs are the political parties, Election commission is the Sheshnaag (Snake) , and The government machinery is the “Parvat” ( Mountain) used for samudra manthan. Needless to say, the mandate is the Amrit/Poison that comes out of this Samudra manthan.
In democratic republics of the world, elections are fought on issues and election manifestos. But despite being world’s largest democracy, in India elections are seldom fought on issues and manifestos. There are few other things which have caught the fancy of our people when they decide to vote... issues are certainly not the first factor.
In this article I have tried to capture some of the factors apart from issues that have changed the course of elections, changed the governments and off course changed the fate of our democracy. Coincidently many of them start from alphabet M.
Here is the list of 10 Ms that have ruled our elections and over all Indian Political Scenario...
1) Money: First and may be foremost factor of any elections. Starting from Panchayat elections to State Assembly to general Lok sabha elections to Rajya Sabha Elections, Money decides who will contest, and who will win. Thus many times it’s the “Money” that decides the ruler not the mandate. Let me explain… Our Political parties need huge amount of money for election campaigns, which invariably comes from big corporate houses and businessmen. When they invest their money they decide their candidates or many times they themselves decide to contest and reach to the parliament. MPs like Vijay Mallya, Anil Ambani, or Reddy brothers in Karnataka are just a small testimony of how money rules. Most political parties change huge sums of money for giving a ticket, prices vary from seat to seat and level of elections. I might be shot down for saying that it was money that helped Jawahar lal Nehru became the prime minister not Vallabh Bhai Patel. Patel despite being more popular choice for the top post was denied the opportunity as Nehru’s monetary contribution was more than Patel’s. Money has shown many low points in own syatem. Mony was used saving governments, horse tradings during hung parliaments , even our leaders demanded money for asking questions in parliament. Unfortunately the “Money” factor still rules and don’t know till when it will rule over candidature.
2) Maut : Killing people is the most primitive form of finishing one’s opposition or threat. It has happened in America with Lincoln, Kennedy, in Pakistan with Mr. Bhutto, in Bangladesh with Mujiburrahman, and most recently in Iraq with Mr. Saddam Hussain. Our Indian politics and elections have been blotted by dark red blood right from the beginning. Assassination of Indira and Rajeev Gandhi are the most prominent ones in Indian Politics History. Post Indira Gandhi assassination Congress got 404 seats, next party with maximum seats was CPI (M) with 22 seats. People forgot all the atrocities of emergency and Operation Blue star and gave votes to his Rajeev Gandhi who came out of the cockpit and went directly to the PM office. Similarly when Rajeev was killed in 1991, Congress came back in power thanks to sympathy votes. No one discussed performances of governments, or eligibility of candidates. People voted using their hearts and manifestos were used for wiping out tears.
3) Masala: This is the third M which have ruled the political theatre especially south India. It is said that shortest route to CM office goes via celluloid. NT Ramarao, MGR, Jayalatitha, Karunnanidhi and others like Chiranjeevi are biggest examples of those who made it to power and stayed there with help of their celluloid image. In south India, Hero worship generally shadowed everything. Many have tried to copy that model of these names with more or less success. Indian voters generally fail to differentiate between on screen image and reality. This is resulted into some strange results like Govinda, Rajesh Khanna, Vinod Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha, Hema malini. Even likes of Smriti Irani, Ravi kissen and Manoj Tiwari have tried their luck to reach corridors of Indian parliament. It is common practice to bring hired pretty faces for election campaigns to have big crowd gatherings. Nobody asks from where who faces appears during elections and where do they disappear after elections. Accept it or not, masala is still a big factor in our election engineering.
© Shekhar Suman
Fortunately or unfortunately, when I was growing up Indian Political scenario was going through lots of turmoil. Reservation, Bofors, Globalization, just to name a few were making headlines. Thanks to constant access to magazines like Maya, India today and Kadambini.. I developed a keen interest in Indian Politics.
For more than 20 years, I have been following the Great Indian Democracy Tamasha. Born in Bihar, means you are politically aware and sensitive. Since then I have been a keen witness to 7 general elections and 5 state elections in Bihar. Though unfortunately, I am yet to cast my own vote.
So you can call me a self declared politics veteran :) ... Latest election I witnessed was Bihar State assembly election 2010. I am looking forward to West Bengal State Assembly Elections 2011.
Elections are no doubt the biggest festival of democracy. You can compare elections to “Samudra Manthan”. In this Samudra Manthan, People are the ocean, Sur Asurs are the political parties, Election commission is the Sheshnaag (Snake) , and The government machinery is the “Parvat” ( Mountain) used for samudra manthan. Needless to say, the mandate is the Amrit/Poison that comes out of this Samudra manthan.
In democratic republics of the world, elections are fought on issues and election manifestos. But despite being world’s largest democracy, in India elections are seldom fought on issues and manifestos. There are few other things which have caught the fancy of our people when they decide to vote... issues are certainly not the first factor.
In this article I have tried to capture some of the factors apart from issues that have changed the course of elections, changed the governments and off course changed the fate of our democracy. Coincidently many of them start from alphabet M.
Here is the list of 10 Ms that have ruled our elections and over all Indian Political Scenario...
1) Money: First and may be foremost factor of any elections. Starting from Panchayat elections to State Assembly to general Lok sabha elections to Rajya Sabha Elections, Money decides who will contest, and who will win. Thus many times it’s the “Money” that decides the ruler not the mandate. Let me explain… Our Political parties need huge amount of money for election campaigns, which invariably comes from big corporate houses and businessmen. When they invest their money they decide their candidates or many times they themselves decide to contest and reach to the parliament. MPs like Vijay Mallya, Anil Ambani, or Reddy brothers in Karnataka are just a small testimony of how money rules. Most political parties change huge sums of money for giving a ticket, prices vary from seat to seat and level of elections. I might be shot down for saying that it was money that helped Jawahar lal Nehru became the prime minister not Vallabh Bhai Patel. Patel despite being more popular choice for the top post was denied the opportunity as Nehru’s monetary contribution was more than Patel’s. Money has shown many low points in own syatem. Mony was used saving governments, horse tradings during hung parliaments , even our leaders demanded money for asking questions in parliament. Unfortunately the “Money” factor still rules and don’t know till when it will rule over candidature.
2) Maut : Killing people is the most primitive form of finishing one’s opposition or threat. It has happened in America with Lincoln, Kennedy, in Pakistan with Mr. Bhutto, in Bangladesh with Mujiburrahman, and most recently in Iraq with Mr. Saddam Hussain. Our Indian politics and elections have been blotted by dark red blood right from the beginning. Assassination of Indira and Rajeev Gandhi are the most prominent ones in Indian Politics History. Post Indira Gandhi assassination Congress got 404 seats, next party with maximum seats was CPI (M) with 22 seats. People forgot all the atrocities of emergency and Operation Blue star and gave votes to his Rajeev Gandhi who came out of the cockpit and went directly to the PM office. Similarly when Rajeev was killed in 1991, Congress came back in power thanks to sympathy votes. No one discussed performances of governments, or eligibility of candidates. People voted using their hearts and manifestos were used for wiping out tears.
3) Masala: This is the third M which have ruled the political theatre especially south India. It is said that shortest route to CM office goes via celluloid. NT Ramarao, MGR, Jayalatitha, Karunnanidhi and others like Chiranjeevi are biggest examples of those who made it to power and stayed there with help of their celluloid image. In south India, Hero worship generally shadowed everything. Many have tried to copy that model of these names with more or less success. Indian voters generally fail to differentiate between on screen image and reality. This is resulted into some strange results like Govinda, Rajesh Khanna, Vinod Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha, Hema malini. Even likes of Smriti Irani, Ravi kissen and Manoj Tiwari have tried their luck to reach corridors of Indian parliament. It is common practice to bring hired pretty faces for election campaigns to have big crowd gatherings. Nobody asks from where who faces appears during elections and where do they disappear after elections. Accept it or not, masala is still a big factor in our election engineering.
© Shekhar Suman
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