Despite ECI guidelines, more chaos than order

India is considered the mother of democracy. It refers to a system where citizens choose their representatives through elections. According to the Constitution, Indian society and citizens reflect democratic values ​​such as equality, liberty, fraternity, secularism and justice. To ensure that citizens choose their representatives, an independent constitutional body called the Election Commission of India has been set up. Once the poll notification is announced, the entire administrative machinery is supposed to work as per the guidelines of the ECI.

The ECI has issued specific guidelines regarding the expenditure a candidate must incur, how the campaign should be conducted and how religion and caste should not be used in elections. As far as the ruling party is concerned, the campaign for the Lok Sabha or state Assembly elections should focus on the programmes, their progress report for the last five years and their vision for the next five years.

The opposition should also focus on exposing the negligence and commissions of the government, the scams or irregularities that had taken place and how they had affected the growth of the state or country.

But what we need to think about is whether we are really following these guidelines. The answer would be a big ‘No’. There seems to be more chaos than order. Let’s take a look at the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. The Opposition and the ruling BJP are in control on the issue of reservations and who has destroyed the Constitution and who will change the Constitution. While the BJP has given Modi an assurance that there will be no religion-based reservations, the Congress party’s manifesto says they will remove the cap on reservation percentage and give reservations to the Muslims.

When the Constitution was framed, it was felt that since the weaker sections of society need a hand, they should be given reservation in government jobs and education so that they can be promoted and a level playing field can be created. It had clearly stated that there should be no religion-based reservations.

It was also felt that reservations should be for a period of ten years. This meant that the government had to take this up as a priority programme. But 75 years later, we are still fighting the elections over the issue of reservations.

The Congress party is shouting that if the BJP comes to power, they will remove all reservations and introduce a new constitution. The BJP says the Constitution has been seriously tampered and amended more than 100 times in the last 75 years and claims the process started with the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and continued by Indira Gandhi, the grandmother of ‘Shehzada’ (Rahul Gandhi) and his father Rajiv Gandhi.

Refuting Rahul’s claim that 400 pairs is a plan to change the Constitution, Prime Minister Narendra Modi says the NDA is close to 400 seats even now and if that was their agenda, it would have been the same for the last five years. He said it was a deliberate and misleading propaganda by the Congress party.

To counter Modi, Rahul is taking up the issue of Revenna, son of former Prime Minister Deve Gowda, who is facing sex scam allegations. Rahul says saving rapists is Modi’s guarantee. The crux of the matter is that the election narrative has gone off the rails and has descended to the level of personal attacks, forgetting the common man, whose votes really matter. The Congress party, which is contesting just over 300 seats, feels it is now close to the throne and Rahul’s jokes about Modi will give the party enough votes to form the government.

It is truly ironic that the opposition is not coming up with effective criticism of the government and its misfortunes. While the BJP believes that the socio-political polarization will give them an edge, the Congress believes that they can capitalize on the caste divide. Every party believes that elections can be won on the basis of emotion, caste, religion and family image.

The BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi continue to talk about ‘Vikasit Bharat’, by 2047, which aims to transform India into a fully developed nation. The BJP sums up its ten-year performance as a mix of fiscal prudence. If we take a quick look at the state of the economy over the past decade, it becomes clear that GDP growth of over 7 percent, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, is admirable. But what should be noted here is that public investment has been muted. Economic growth can be stimulated if private investment increases sharply.

Another noteworthy point is that while the organized sector has recovered post-pandemic, the unorganized sector is still struggling. Employment remains slow and low and rural incomes were negatively impacted. After the pandemic, government policies and the rise in repo rates had led to a sharp increase in prices.

There has been an increase in the number of self-employed people, but the promise of one million jobs that the BJP had promised in 2014 has not materialized. It also appears that the country has fallen short in terms of asset monetization. On the plus side, LIC had gone public as Center sold 3 percent of its stake. In terms of infrastructure, one must certainly admit that India has experienced spectacular growth. It really took off and such speed has never been seen in the last seventy years. The road network had developed at a breakneck pace and the credit for getting things done should go to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari.

Another major achievement is undoubtedly the way it has revolutionized the mode of payment through the introduction of digital payments. This had stimulated the concept of a cashless economy. But on the other hand, it has not reduced black money as expected. Statistics show that cash in circulation has doubled post demonetisation.

GST was introduced to replace the complex tax system, but the different tax slabs had not yielded the desired results and had led to increases in the prices of various commodities. Petroleum products are an example of this.

However, the government believes that this anti-incumbency factor would be overcome by welfare schemes like Ayushman Bharat, Prime Minister Ujwala Yojana, Jan Aushadi, open defecation-free villages, Har Ghar Nal Jal etc. which would help the BJP achieve a hat-trick. But unfortunately, the discussion about the Modi government’s hits and misses has not become the talk of the town.

Now let’s come to the second aspect of polls: the role of EBI. While EBI has a monumental task, it must not only be fair, but also appear fair. But there is criticism that the ECI did not exercise its powers as effectively as it should and could. People remember the days of TN Seshan and believe it should take quick decisions as it is the ultimate authority to ensure free and fair elections.

Take the case of Andhra Pradesh for example. In the 2019 elections, it had replaced the chief secretary overnight. But now, despite several protests by the opposition parties, including the state BJP, and certain incidents of violence and the inability of the government to take necessary security measures at the first joint meeting of the opposition alliance addressed by the Prime Minister and the refusal of the state government to use the panchayat staff to distribute the old age pension at the doorstep for two consecutive months, April and May, the ECI had not taken any decision to replace the chief secretary and the DGP.

This raises questions as to whether the voter in Andhra Pradesh would actually be able to exercise their vote in a free and fair manner? The opposition parties are keeping their fingers crossed and believe that since politics is a dynamic situation, “they will see pain soon.”