Still Powerless?
Saturday, March 7th, 2009
Photo credit: Carol Mitchell
The smell of elections is in the air. Both our newspapers and TV are inundated with extravagant promises from our politicians, and accusations and counter-accusations are flying over which party is the most corrupt, who is the most unconcerned about terrorism, who the most callous about poverty, and interestingly, who is allowed to play the current catchy movie tune.
My area’s polling station is walking distance from my house, so casting my vote means just a short stroll in the morning. The queue is not very long, and I don’t find it a hassle. Many people I know however feel differently about voting, especially in the younger age-group. They tell me that they don’t bother to vote - ‘It doesn’t make a difference’, ‘I don’t support any among the field of candidates,’ are the usual answers I get.
I had written earlier on this blog about Jaago re, and whether shifts in voting make a difference in the governance we get. Many of our problems are deeply rooted, especially in terms of corruption and interest groups, and it will take much more than small voting shifts to change that. But what can change to some extent with the literacy of the average voter is the transparency people demand from governance, and better answers on policy (more educated voters for example, demand to know where the money for government handouts and loan waivers is coming from).
And only more informed voters can force political parties to shift to a higher standards in the quality and qualifications of their candidates. We are not in a pleasant place with regard to this. However much we boast about how educated our present Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is, its telling that he has never won a popular election.
How much of such reform is possible right now, if for instance, more of the middle class participate? The conventional wisdom has long been that this group lacks the numbers to make an impact. But these last few years tell us otherwise. The numbers in our middle class have ballooned in the last half-decade, even though we still feel like our effect on politics is that of a tiny minority. The Delimitation Commission’s recent reforms have also given the urban vote more power: for instance in Karnataka, Bangalore’s share of seats has now gone up from 11 to 28 - that is one tenth of the strength of the Assembly, which means that Bangalore (and Mumbai, Chennai, Calcutta, Hyderabad) now matters a great deal as a swing vote. With urbanisation only speeding up, and voters in urban areas skewing educated and informed, this is not good news for the unvarnished populists among our politicians.
Is a tipping point emerging? And is a 300 million strong middle class enough to trigger a change in our standards?