Some Reflections On India’s 2024 Election Results – OpEd

June 7, 2024June 7, 2024 Prakash Kona 0 Comments

It’s hard for me to understand why people vote against their own interests. Perhaps it’s a question that bothered Gramsci as well before he embarked on his prison notebooks: why does the ordinary person-on-the-street support fascism? Why do they not ask for a just society when it is precisely the victims of injustice who have the most to gain from such a society? Why do they not ask for better working conditions? Why don’t they fight for work that suits their natural abilities and personality? People in India are usually asking for bare minimum, that too in very general terms. No matter what they ask, they know they are getting nothing. This is why, just before every election, most of the poor and unemployed are happy getting bribed with a little money and the mandatory whisky bottle in exchange for their vote. You need to be drunk to be okay with this kind of brutal exploitation.

The lack of self-respect in the average Indian is the root of the problem. People without self-respect stoop to anything. Self-respect comes when you have a moral sense, a sense of something being right as opposed to wrong. No one understood this better than Mahatma Gandhi. This is the reason why Gandhian politics constantly emphasized dignity. This lack of dignity in the average Indian can be seen in the political class, as well as those with education. It’s not just the corruption at all levels of government that is bothersome. The corrupt in India are also shameless. This tendency to be shamelessly corrupt is worrisome. We need to first and foremost cultivate in people a need to respect themselves. They must be made morally aware that their actions have consequences, both right and wrong. For a beginning we need to make sure they get decent food, healthcare and proper education that endows them with human value.

Pakistan’s religious and political establishment should be really pleased with the direction in which India is heading. Pakistan is not walking the India way as I thought they would decades ago. We are walking the Pakistani way. Our politics, universities and other public institutions have been reduced to a joke. There are people who are comfortable with this ‘joke.’ The kind of people who support this government share the worldview that guides the political party in question. They won’t lift a finger to make a difference to the poor and deprived sections. I often wonder how someone can see so much avoidable misery all around them and yet do nothing about it. Most of these people actually believe that they are nationalists. How are you a nationalist who does nothing for the people of your nation? That’s a million-dollar question. Probably there is a new definition to nationalism: Talk a lot, divide people, talk more, divide even more, and just keep talking, the divisions are happening anyway.

I’m wondering if the problem lies in the way we understand democracy in this country. Years ago I had a PhD student from Afghanistan who worked on the plausibility of democracy in his country. The thrust of his argument was that western-style democracy is impossible in Afghanistan. What is possible is some version of a democracy that suits the social and religious ethos of the Afghan people. Though then I didn’t take his argument seriously I’m beginning to think that Indians are culturally unsuited for modern democratic institutions. We need to democratize institutions before we democratize the people. But, how do we democratize institutions when the people who occupy them are intellectually and morally regressive! To begin with there is too much power vested in these institutions and too little with the people. Governments, bureaucracies, courts of law, financial institutions and law enforcement agencies have too much power at their disposal. State power needs to negotiate with civil society. This doesn’t mean that we accommodate the rule-less behavior of ordinary masses. But a set of criteria needs to be evolved in order to ensure that abuse of power does not take place on either side – the state functionaries or the common people.

The whole idea that democracy is the best form of government among available options is largely a myth. No one wants to talk of the expenses involved, to the tune of hundreds of millions, for maintaining a political class and a bureaucracy that is hardly responsive to the concerns of the masses. A poor country like India where the masses are caught in the deadly struggle of making ends meet simply cannot afford to be wasting that kind of money. This is a nation of 1.4 billion people, now with the dubious distinction of being the most populated country on earth. We must evolve an inexpensive way of running this country. When we have hungry and unemployed people, how can we use the money for ‘free and fair’ elections, that are anyway neither free nor fair! In the name of democracy, we have created all the conditions for modern-day slavery. For instance, the role of money in elections clearly demonstrates the role of corporate power. In fact, one thing you realize is that for the corporate owners of wealth, it doesn’t matter who wins or loses the election. It’s only common people who are waiting for the results of the elections. No political party would dare disturb the ownership rights of corporate bosses. For the latter, it is more than enough to perpetuate their domination at all costs.

Religion, language, caste, region, language and dialect (apart from the predominant class and gender) are the reality of Indian life. You can take a person out of India. You can’t take India out of the person. For essentially bigoted people, we must address the bigotry in the first place. The educated class in India is a mirror-image of the political class. People become doctors, engineers, teachers, lawyers and scientists. They have degrees from prestigious institutions in a western country or from India itself. They work for multinational companies and are fans of music and films produced abroad. Yet their minds are narrower than the proverbial well in which the frog lives. The frog is a smart animal. Someday it’ll get out of the well. It’ll find a pond, maybe. But I doubt if the Indian will ever abandon his or her well. It’s a bit too cozy down here, albeit dark, but the darkness suits us.

Despite the fact that five more years of the current regime seems like eternity, I’m glad that the Narendra Modi-led BJP did not fare as well as they expected. It is clear as daylight where the exit polls were prepared. The bitter Indian summer heat was truly a test of endurance. Apparently South Asia will be unlivable in the next 20 years. All of that pales in comparison to the unlivable situation that the political parties and consecutive governments in India have created for the common people for decades.

The digital platform, which is slowly emerging as an alternative to Print and TV-based media, produced admirable young people who stood up to the wrongs of the government. They produced brilliant videos against polarization along communal lines. Dhruv Rathee, for example, did an exceptionally good job. His work is award-winning because of the meticulous manner in which he researches and communicates the double standards of the government. He deserves international recognition. Sakshi Joshi (@SakshiJoshi_TVAnchor), Nidhi Sharma (Kelaya reacts) and Hindu Muslim Bhai Bhai (@Hindu_Muslim_Bhai_Bhai) and their respective teams apart from quite a few others kept throwing down the gauntlet to the political party in power. Tiger Yadav (@tigeryadav8274) needs special mention here. Through short videos using accessible forms that the masses understand, they speak to a predominantly Hindi audience, exposing the barefaced lies of the government. The beauty of democracy is that it allows for the deconstruction of power. Without such a deconstruction, the powerful would be under the illusion that power is forever.