BJP needs to Put it’s House in Order & Do It Fast!
by RK Misra
Though these are still early days but UPA (which essentially means Congress) is seemingly doing better on policy and governance front than most expected, after securing better than expected electoral mandate in May elections.
There seem to be a resolve on part of the Congress to convert this still uncertain and short of majority electoral mandate to a secure majority in 2014 by delivering on good governance and inclusive growth & development agenda. This is a well thought out plan leading to a winning electoral strategy as it appeals to both educated urban middle class (good governance & reforms) as well as rural masses (social welfare and inclusive growth).
UPA (Congress) has been very systematic and consistent about this agenda and have made their intentions known, first by way of Presidential Address and yesterday through Economic Survey report. A follow-up of this strategy and developmental agenda by way of budget provisions is expected on 6th.
I, as a citizen, am happy about it as no one can fault and argue with this approach as this is the best possible development model for India, provided they deliver on their intentions and promises given that delivery systems are in shambles and leaky.
Now coming to the political ramifications of success of this agenda. Some of my friends in Congress are so confident of their strategy (a BJP in disarray is a bonus) that they have been talking about return of pre-1977 days when Congress ruled for decades without a break.
Tome met this does not sound too good given that Congress did not do a good job of economic and social development during first 3 decades post independence. The reason for this poor performance could lie in the absence of a credible opposition and fear of loosing an election.
A credible opposition is as important as a good government to ensure that enough checks and balances are there. We all are witness to a lackluster performance of Rajiv Gandhi government despite having 3/4th majority.
Current state of affairs in BJP, though disheartening, is not unexpected. Every defeat results in heart-burns and finger pointing but this needs to come an end soon. A strong and united BJP will provided much needed checks & balances and should play the role of a constructive opposition to build it’s credibility among Indian electorate if they expect to have a fighting chance of coming back to power ever again.
A Right-of-Center political formulation led by BJP will be in the best interest of the country and for the Congress too, as Congress would prefer to deal with the predictable opposition (BJP), rather than deal with the mercurial left led by unelectable comrades and regional satraps who are completely oblivious of economic and social developmental challenges facing the nation.
Let’s all wish us luck and hope that BJP puts its house in order and does it fast!!
Congress Must Not Waste This Mandate!
by RK Misra
I was happy to see the possibility of a stable government which is essential to provide a clear direction to our country in these times of economic uncertainty. Though my party has taken a beating in this election, but I was happy nonetheless and hoped that Congress will use this mandate to push forward the economic and inclusive development agenda, given that they will not have worry about the left and opportunistic allies.
However, the drama which unfolded prior to and during government formation is worrying me. DMK washed their dirty family linen in public and shamelessly jockeyed for ministerial births for family members. They also made brazen attempts to include inefficient ministers who had serious corruption allegations against them. Balu and Raja were amongst the worst performing ministers in the previous government. National Highway program was brought to a halt under inefficient Balu and Raja gave away GSM spectrum causing huge revenue loss to the exchequer.
I had hoped that Mr. Manmohan Singh will not relent to pressure tactics of DMK and will keep such non-performers out of the cabinet, but that wasn’t to be. Raja is back with a bang in the same ministry. We all can only hope that PM will make him perform this time around.
Another disturbing aspect of this cabinet is it’s dynastic nature. One in every 4 minister comes from a political family and has been accommodated to placate the father, uncle or mother. Nothing wrong in having capable MPs as ministers who happen to come from political families, but making them ministers because they come from political families certainly does not augur well for efficiency and accountability.
One family inclusion, which I am happy about, is young Agatha Sangma, daughter of NCP leader and ex-speaker Mr. P Sangma. A 28 year old becoming a minister is a good first step towards inducting young and energetic MPS into the government. As MoS in Rural Development Ministry, I sincerly hope that she performs well. I would like her pay special attention to the development of the North East and set a good example for other young MPs who aspire to become ministers.
Arjun Singh and Shivraj Patil’s exclusion are certainly worth mentioning and PM must be congratulated for doing the right thing.
We hope that HRD Ministry under Kapil Sibbal will bring about fundamental change in the mindset of HRD ministry mandarins. Access and Quality continue to be the major challenges as far as Primary Education is concerned. In higher education, we have been trying to maintain the quality by controlling the supply side, which is counter intuitive in this era of open and competitive economy. Hope Foreign Universities are allowed entry to India and are encouraged to offer quality education given that huge number of our bright students struggle to go abroad for education putting tremendous financial strain to their parents.
Another area of concern has been stalled infrastructure projects. Under Kamalnath, we hope that this sector get required policy direction and time-bound delivery of infrastructure projects is ensured.
Finance ministry has got an able administrator and hopefully they will be able to push ahead with pending reforms given that left will no longer be breathing down their neck.
Judicial reforms, police reforms and internal security overhaul are other areas of concern.
Overall, Dr Singh has done a reasonable job of picking his ministers and now we look forward to results. First 100 days will give a fairly good idea on where they are headed. Lets hope they deliver and don’t disappoint the electorate who have voted for a stable and performing government.
Long Live Indian Democracy!
by RK Misra
Now that elections are over and we will have a stable government in place, it is a good time to do some analysis of national mood and trends - what worked and what did not work for various political parties and alliances.
First of all, I would like to talk about the victor - The Congress.
Rahul Gandhi is being credited for this victory and rightly so, as he led the campaign from the front. Everyone in Congress is celebrating the arrival of Rahul. He is being hailed as a visionary and an astute political brain. All this praise & jubilation is also a result of long wait and frustration of Congressmen, who had been waiting to offer legitimacy to Rahul’s leadership and stature in the Congress party.
I wish him luck, as I believe that he is genuinely trying to bring a change in the Congress party. I would also credit him for legitimizing the genuine need for young and fresh faces in Indian politics. Though most young congressmen are sons and daughters of politicians but that’s no reason to complain, they are young nonetheless. His much publicized effort to induct and promote young people in Indian politics are specially laudable as it is forcing other parties to think on similar lines.
I also congratulate Indian electorate for a brilliant performance by giving a clear mandate to a national party. By doing so, they have saved this country from vagaries of regional parties, the opportunistic political outfits disguising themselves as various fronts and alliances.
Congress however needs to look deeper and realize that this victory is not necessarily a national mandate in favor of congress but a combination of several factors, alliances and sheer luck in some cases.
Lets look at UP, which is the most talked about turnaround story of these elections. The decision to go alone was not a considered strategy but a forced consequence of SP’s reluctance to part with seats. Kalyan Singh joining SP was a lucky break as minority community strategically voted for Congress in areas where Congress had winnable candidates. Rest of the congress candidates in UP could not even save their deposits. Moreover people in UP are really fed-up with SP-BSP misrule for the past 20 years. The real test will be 2012 assembly polls and I wish both national parties luck in UP as UP must be developed. Hopefully BJP would have got it’s act together by then.
Bihar too was supposedly the part of the same ‘Go Alone’ strategy of Rahul Gandhi(though we all know that Lalu-Paswan duo forced it). No such electoral dividends accrued here, because people voted for good governance and inclusive agenda of JD(U)-BJP government.
So while Rahul is and should be given credit for working hard and leading from the front in UP (which boosted the morale of cadre and brought discipline), UP victory can not be solely attributed to ‘Go Alone’ strategy, as it wasn’t a strategy but forced consequence.
Delhi & Rajasthan victories of Congress comes on the back of successful assembly wins in the recent past. 0-7 wipe out of BJP in Delhi is most disheartening for the only national alternative to Congress. BJP had not learned from it’s defeat and mistakes in assembly polls in these 2 states and paid a heavy price. Hope they put their act together before 2014.
UPA’s WB and TN victories should be attributed to allies. Rejection of left policies in WB and Mamta’s Singur triumph were solely responsible. Congress just retained it’s tlly of 6 in WB and in fact dropped to 8 (from 10) in TN. Vijayakanth’s DMDK played a spoiler for AIADMK led alliance in TN as most anti DMK vote ended up going to DMDK. Mamata made spectacular gains in WB by cloaking 19 seats (from just 1 seat in 2004). BJP made a blunder by not being able to forge an alliance with Mamta, the erstwhile partner of NDA.
Left will be in real trouble in assembly elections in 2011, after 30 years of political supremacy in WB. This may not be a bad thing for people of WB who have suffered underdevelopment and violence by left cadre for decades now. Though Mamta too is not a good news for industrial development of WB after her tantrums in Singur.
In AP & Maharashtra, MNS and Chiranjeevi’s PRP came to UPA’s rescue. YSR’s development and welfare schemes were also positives for Congress in AP. BJP/Shiv Sena got it completely wrong in Maharashtra by underestimating MNS effect. Their 6-0 tally in Bombay is really something to worry about.
BJP did well in MP, Gujarat, HP and Chattisgarh, primarily due to good governance of incumbent BJP governments. Though 16-10 tally in Gujarat is worrying for BJP. MP victory too wasn’t very convincing. Jharkhand victory of BJP must be attributed to the mess created by Congress, RJD and JMM combine. BJP needs to really work hard to hold these states as anti-incumbency will be the main factor in all these states when they go to polls in next 4 years. Hence BJP can not count on these states for 2014 Lok Sabha elections as given.
Karnataka needs special mention as it gave maximum (19) MPs to BJP. Incumbent BJP swept the polls due to it’s organizational strength and committed grass root cadre. Congress camp was chaotic with too many top leaders. Rahul effect was absent in Karnatka.
Kerala voted for UDF and LDF was routed, as they do every 5 years.
Coming to the under performers -
BJP was not able to perform to it’s potential. While Congress exceeded it’s own expectation on the up-side, BJP did the same on the down. BJP highlighted UPA’s failures but failed to communicate their agenda effectively. This wasn’t appreciated by the voters, as they did not want to take chances with the unknown. BJP did not talk enough about their progressive manifesto as well, which itself came very late. Some pre-poll incidents and speeches also hurt BJP’s prospects in several constituencies, primarily in urban India. While Rahul Gandhi symbolized and projected youth agenda of the Congress, BJP could not counter it effectively.
Overall, it would seem that in the case of BJP, there was a disconnect from the expectations of the electorate. This is the second time in a row and needs serious thinking and remedial measures.
As far as other parties are concerned- Left, SP, BSP and other regional parties, this election has clearly demonstrated that only thing electorate cares for, is the DEVELOPMENT & GOOD GOVERNANCE. This is a great change in post Mandal politics of India.
Left paid for it’s opportunistic politics, which believed in enjoying the power without shouldering the responsibility. This was a fitting reply to the arrogant & non-electable red brigade which controls the power strings sitting in cool comforts of Delhi while preaching supposedly pro-poor agenda.
Poor governance and under performance of BSP government in UP paid rest to the Prime Ministerial ambitions of Mayawati, who believed that being Dalit-ki-Beti is the necessary and sufficient condition for being the Prime Minister. This will be a fitting lesson to other non-performing regional Satraps of Indian politics. Similarly Lalu ji is still paying for his sins of keeping Bihar poor for 14 years.
This result has done good to our democracy and country. It showed that non performing regional outfits which survive only on caste and social engineering will not survive, while performing will be rewarded, as in the case of Bihar and Orissa. It would seem that Post Mandal caste politics is on it’s last leg.
Overall, these elections are a victory for our democracy. The electorate has given a decisive verdict and expects the government to perform. Indian democracy is maturing much faster than our political parties. In all recent elections, the electorate had been wiser and has voted only on development & governance agenda. We must salute our electorate for displaying this discerning ability to make the ‘Right Choice’. Our democracy is in safe hands.
“Low Voter Turn Out” - No longer an Urban Aberration - It reflects Nation’s Apathy towards ‘Opportunistic Politics’
by RK Misra
On May-1st, the proverbial heartland of Indian democracy, UP polled just 45% in the 3rd phase of polls on 30th April. It seems that most politically active and significant state, which sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha, is slowly but steadily losing interest in politics.
The high profile constituency of Lucknow voted just 34.5%. I spoke with few friends and family in Lucknow, who went to vote early fearing long queues but were surprised to see empty polling booths. Second largest city of UP, Kanpur voted just 39%.
The ssituation is same in neighboring Bihar where average polling in the first 3 phases has been 44%, 45% and 49% respectively Compare this with average 58% in 2004 Lok Sabha elections. This is despite all round praise for Nitish Kumar who brought Bihar back on developmental map of the country.
Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat which went to poll on development & good governance agenda of their respective chief ministers too failed to excite the electorate with MP polling just 45% (48% in 2004) and Gujarat 50% (45% in 2004).
Maharashtra too is averaging 45% compared with 48% in 2004. Greater Bombay (10 seats) was 43.5%, even lower than 47.5% in 2004. This is really shocking given high decibel celebrity campaigns, voter awareness programs and emotionally charged environment post 26/11.
The above trend shows that in all large heartland states of the country, voters have lost interest in elections due to their apathy towards political class, which pursues corrupt and criminal brand of politics devoid of issues which concern the average citizen.
Political parties are responsible for this apathy as they field criminals and moneybags as their candidates, as these are supposedly winnable candidates. Party loyalists on their death bed are give tickets, sons and daughters of political families are other favorites apart from cine stars and venom spitting religious blokes. These worthy souls might win the election, but political class looses the respect and confidence of genuine voter who wants to believe in democracy and cares for the nation.
Current election distinctly lacks focus and debate on pressing national issues of worsening economy,crumbling infrastructure, security threats and most importantly governance and development.
Instead of educating and informing electorate about their manifesto and development agenda, political parties are busy snapping at their opponents and digging their past. They are more interested in highlighting what their opponents have not done, rather than discussing what they will do, if elected to power.
In my opinion, media is the biggest culprit, given that people expect them to be the voice of the civil society. In the race to garner TRP ratings, they have resorted to highlighting only sensational and meaningless issues.
Late evening talk shows (they call them debates) on national news channels have become a joke where anchor seems to believe that his decibel level is directly proportional to the TRP rating of his channel. Developmental and governance agenda is rarely discussed in the media, which is obsessed with quotable quotes from Varun, Priyanka, Maya and Modi.
Media has let civil society down and has completely failed in its responsibility to highlight pressing issues and force the debate among political class.
Low voter turnout is no longer an urban educated elite phenomenon, it is a reflection of all pervasive apathy of voters across the country towards political class. This is the biggest threat to our democracy which relies on the participation of the informed electorate to choose the best among available options. People have lost faith in the elections because they don’t see any merit in the process.
Political parties need to work at the grass root level, engage with the civil society, grow their cadre and practice internal democracy if they want to regain the faith and confidence of the electorate.
Media too needs to introspect and stop insulting their viewers/readers by dishing out sensational and silly make-believe stories in the garb of the news.
Don’t Just Vote - Make it Count - ‘Become the SWING VOTER’
by RK Misra
There is a myth that the Educated Civil Society, being small in numbers, can not influence the electoral outcome. Consequently majority of us are not motivated to engage with the political class. Many of us abstain from voting because we believe that we are too small in numbers to change the ways of Indian politics. However, a closer analysis will reveal that in this age of coalition politics, with so many parties and candidates, victory margins are very small. In fact, most MPs in urban centres win by margins of just few thousand votes.
4 out of 7 seats in Delhi were won by narrow margins in 2004 Lok Sabha elections - New Delhi - 12784, South Delhi-16005, Delhi Sadar - 15974 & Karol Bagh 37,629. Mumbai also had similar figures, 3 out of 7 seats were won by less than 25,000 votes - Mumbai South-10246, Mumbai - South Central-22188, Mumbai North Central - 13,329.
This is not true only for Metro, even smaller cities across the country have witnessed similar trends. Victory margin in Kanpur was just 5,638 votes, Nashik - 15,058 votes, Ranchi -15,421 votes, Allahabad - 28,383 votes and Bangalore North - 30,358 votes.
Another myth is that Indian politics is decided by rural India. Hence issues relevant to the city dwellers and educated civil society are of no relevance to political parties as they do not need urban votes to come to power. The fact is that 2009 Lok Sabha will have 120+ MPs (out of 543) from Urban Areas.
Just concluded delimitation of constituencies has dramatically increased the number of urban constituencies, which will further grow as India urbanizes. 120 is a huge number, given the coalition politics where Mrs. Mayawati, with potentially 50 MPs, will have the real possibility to stake the claim for Prime Minister’s post.
We also need to note that in 2009 elections we have more than 10 Crore First Time Voters, majority of them in urban areas. Compare this with the vote difference between two national parties, Congress and BJP in 2004 Lok Sabha Elections, just 98 Lakh votes of total 38.99 crore votes olled.
In 2004 Lok Sabha polls BJP got 22.2% and Congress - 26.7% of the total votes polled - 38.99 crores (58%) of total 67.15 crore registered voters.
ELECTIONs-2009 are DIFFERENT in many ways. Post 26/11 people are willing to get out and get counted. We have the real opportunity to MAKE A DIFFERENCE, this time around. So how do we do it?
Each major party and candidate have their own committed vote bank based on ideology, caste, religion, region or language which they nurture and hold by giving sops, favours, appeasement and promises. During the elections, what all political parties need and fear the most are the SWING votes, which usually decide the winner. This number is not very large, specially in urban areas and presents an opportunity for educated civil society to come together and elect the candidate and party of their choice.
It is certainly not difficult to bring together 10,000-25,000 educated people in each urban parliamentary constituency as SWING VOTE BANK, who will vote based on the issues of “Good Governance & Economic Development”. If this happens, these ‘Educated Swing Votes’ will make every political party reach out to them and ask for their issues to be included in their agenda.
Now the question is, how do we organize these educated people, analyze & interact with major candidates/party and make an informed decision to VOTE with a real possibility of having a winner of our choice.
Use of technology will make it possible, Obama has shown it working. We are technology savvy and quick to adapt.
“Change India” has created a CHANGE platform, which you can join by sending an SMS - START CHANGE to 575758.
The target should be to get around 30,000 people in each of the constituencies across 25 cities of the country, accounting for around 50-60 MPs. Details of the candidates/parties will be shared via SMS and website and a deserving consensus candidate will be decided using a web & sms POLL.
We can make a BIG impact in the next Lok Sabha election and hold our winners accountable.
‘Choice is Ours’. Opportunity is NOW, as nation wants to bring a CHANGE in our political system.
Coalition ‘Tamasha’: Are National Parties Losing the Plot?
by RK Misra
Tumkur (Bangalore) - 12th March-2009, The launch of Third Front.
This could be one of the most important and decisive day for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. It may be the first step towards our suffering in the hands of “Opportunistic Coalition”, conveniently disguised as the 3rd Front. This is a group of desperate political parties, with no ideological commonalities, coming together with only one agenda - how to control Delhi and serve their own vested interests.
Most comically, every constituent of the so called Third Front has a prime ministerial candidate. It seems the only reason, these parties are coming together, is the chair of the Prime Minister. Left being the only possible exception, as they have mastered the art of enjoying power without sharing the responsibility.
Left parties are a desperate lot, having been thrown out of power by UPA and with a real prospect of loosing heavily in West Bengal & Kerala. They are at the forefront of this Third Front ‘Tamasha’. Left leaders are accumulating frequent flier miles at an alarming rate running from one state capital to the other, begging regional satraps to put together this ragtag coalition with no common ideology or an agenda for the governance.
Both national parties and their respective coalitions, namely NDA and UPA, may not get enough seats to form the government on their own on May - 23rd. If so, this so called Third Front, whose constituents have mastered the art of opportunistic politics, will come to power and take this nation downhill.
This is not the first time that we are faced with such a dire situation. We have a short memory, and history may be about to repeat again.
In 1977, a coalition in the name of the “Janata Party” came to power but it disintegrated in just 2 years despite people’s disdain for congress and Mrs. Gandhi for imposing the emergency from 1975 to 1977. She was back in power in 1979 with a majority.
1984 was the last time when this nation gave a clear mandate to a national party when Rajeev Gandhi came to power with an absolute majority on a sympathy wave in the wake of the assassination of his mother, Mrs. Indira Gandhi. But he was done in by the Bofors scandal and his confidant, Mr. VP Singh.
1989 saw our first experiment with the coalition politics. Mr. VP Singh, who became the prime minister in a coalition government, ended up creating unimaginable social unrest in the name of “Mandal and Mosque”. He also succeeded in bringing the nation to the “Brink of Bankruptcy”.
VP Singh was defeated and now long gone, but we are still suffering the scars of “Mandalization of Indian Politics”. We also had to pledge our Gold to avoid the payment default to international lenders, due to the economic mismanagement of Mr. VP Singh and his coalition partners in the preceding 2 years.
1991, people were fed-up and they gave congress the mandate to rule. Mr. Narasimha Rao ran the government and initiated economic reforms. The period from 1991-1996 was reasonably stable except for the episode of JMM being bribed to buy their loyalty to support the congress government.
1996, the nation again suffered the unstable coalition governments. We endured 3 Prime Ministers in 2 years including Mr. Devegowda who was ousted before he could settle in the power seat. Mr. I K Gujral followed as he was no threat to anyone and he departed without doing much, as was expected from him. Ms Mayawati brought down Mr. Vajpayee’s government when he lost the no-confidence motion by just one vote.
1999, people, fed-up with the coalition drama, gave NDA, led by Mr. Vajpayee, a decisive mandate. He ran a successful coalition government. This was the first time after 1989 that a coalition government completed full 5 years and credit goes to Mr. Vajpayee’s statesmanship and acceptability among the NDA partners.
2004, it was “India Shining” which got NDA out. But this time UPA coalition government had to use the crutches of the wily left parties. All through, left played truant and held the government to ransom. They enjoyed the trappings of power without sharing the responsibility of governance. This coalition did more harm than good as governance, development and reforms took a back seat while the government was busy managing coalition partners.
As we can see, ragtag coalitions have not worked in this country but unfortunately since 1977, we have to suffer them after every 5 year stint of a stable government. We seem to be heading in the same direction this time around too. But Indian electorate, especially the so called educated middle class seems to be apathetic and blissfully unaware of the looming danger.
But why only blame the electorate? What choices does he have?
I feel the blame for this dire situation lies with the National Parties too. They have been steadily loosing their vote share (BJP had 22.2% and Congress 26.7% in 2004 election) and they may loose even more this time around. But national parties have done precious little to stem this decline.
They have behaved like regional parties raking up emotional and religious issues, which no longer pay dividends. They practice dynastic and caste politics fielding candidates based on their caste and religion. They are devoid of a national agenda, a slogan which will appeal to the majority of this nation. They have no fresh ideas. They do not have role models who will appeal to the youth and the middle class.
National parties have failed to acknowledge the fact that the economic resurgence of India has created a class of society, a large potential vote bank, which believes in the politics of good governance & development. Since national parties do not have what appeals to this class of society, they have chosen to ignore them.
This has alienated their largest potential vote bank - the Middle India, 40 Crore strong and growing, which is educated, secular and wants good governance. This Middle India has lost faith in the current political class and thus have chosen to disengage. This explains the shrinking vote share of the national parties as they are not adding any new voters and at the same time they can not compete with the regional parties which survive and thrive on opportunistic local agenda including caste, region and religion.
Whichever of the 2 national parties chooses to reform itself and is able to engage with this Middle India by having an agenda and role models who appeal to them, will have the last laugh. If they don’t, soon they may no longer remain national parties.
The possible setback in 2009 elections may make them deliberate on a strategy to engage Middle India. Lets hope that having lost the plot, old thinking politicians of national parties will make way for the new generation with new political ideas and ideologies, which will appeal to the 40 Crore strong Middle India. That’s the only route to survival for the 2 National Parties.
I have seen traces of this realization in the BJP and am witness to their openness to engage with the “Middle India”. Lets hope and pray that this tribe grows and succeeds, as “India Deserves Better”!
Economic Blunders of UPA Regime
by RK Misra
Some of us always knew and said this in various forums. But excessive focus of our finance minister on keeping stock markets high and intoxication of masses with imaginary wealth kept the lid tightly closed on the can of worms of economic mess which UPS government has led us into.
I am no economist and no businessman either, at least no more. But I can feel the state of despair and hopelessness among masses, educated elite and business community. We all are worried about our future, if we have one.
Recently I came across several articles by eminent economists, industrialists and opinion makers and it will be worthwhile for us to analyze the current situation and evaluate UPA’s performance.
This will be crucial as we head to the polls in the coming months . We hope you read these articles and give your view.
- Outlook – Economy : Report Card – ‘How A slips to B Minus’
- Book of Blunders – Pratap Bhanu Mehta – UPA squandered the opportunity to deliver on good governances
- The Inertia of Motion - Outlook
- No Head for Numbers – Rajeev Chandrasekhar – Rajya Sabha MP and Chairman FICCI
The Swing Vote: Don’t Just Vote, Make it Count
by RK Misra
There is a myth that the Educated Civil Society, being small in numbers, can not influence the electoral outcome. Consequently majority of us are not motivated to engage with the political class and even abstain from voting because we believe that we are too small in numbers to change the ways of Indian politics. However, a closer analysis will reveal that in this age of coalition politics, with so many parties and candidates, victory margins are very small. In fact, most MPs win by margins of just few thousand votes.
Another myth is that Indian politics is decided by rural India. Hence issues relevant to the city dwellers and educated civil society are of no relevance to political parties as they do not need urban votes to come to power. The fact is that 2009 Lok Sabha will have 120 MPs (out of 543) from Urban Areas. Just concluded delimitation of constituencies has dramatically increased the number of urban constituencies, which will further grow as India urbanizes. 120 is a huge number, given the coalition politics where Mrs. Mayawati with potentially 50 MPs will have the real possibility to stake the claim for Prime Minister’s post.
We also need to note that in 2009 elections we have more than 10 Crore First Time Voters, mainly in urban areas. Compare this with the vote difference between Congress and BJP in 2004 Lok Sabha Elections – 98 Lakh.
ELECTIONs-2009 are DIFFERENT in many ways! Post 26/11 people are willing to get out and get counted. We have the real opportunity to MAKE A DIFFERENCE, this time around.
Each major party and candidate have their own committed vote bank based on ideology, caste, religion, region or language which they nurture and hold by giving sops, favours, appeasement and promises. So during the elections, what all political parties need and fear most are the SWING votes, which usually decide the winner. It is not difficult to bring together 25,000-50,000 educated people in each parliamentary constituency as SWING VOTE BANK, who will vote based on the issues of “Good Governance & Economic Development”. These ‘Educated Swing Votes’ will make every political party reach out to them and ask for their issues to be included in their agenda.
Now the question is, how do we organize these educated people, analyze & interact with major candidates/party and make an informed decision to VOTE with a real possibility of having a winner of our choice.
Use of technology will make it possible, Obama has shown it working. We are technology savvy and quick to adapt.
“Change India” has created a CHANGE platform, which you join by sending an SMS - START CHANGE to 575758.
Our target will be to get around 50,000 people in each of the constituencies across 25 cities of the country, accounting for around 80-100 MPs. Details of the candidates/parties will be shared via SMS and we will also interact with the candidates. Decision will taken via an sms POLL to VOTE for the CANDIDATE/PARTY of our choice.
We can make a BIG impact in the next Lok Sabha election and hold our winners accountable.
‘Choice is Ours’. Opportunity is NOW, as nation is UNITED and wants to bring a CHANGE.
To Change India, We Must Engage with Politics
by RK Misra
It is a common belief that ‘Educated Civil Society’ no longer matters to politicians and policy makers.
Outpouring of public anger post 26/11 in the form of rallies, marches and candle light vigils highlighted the frustration and helplessness of educated middle class. Unfortunately such protests are neither sustainable nor do they provide long term solutions to problems and issues facing our nation.
Failure of governance and lack of development are the two most important issues which our elected representatives and bureaucrats need to focus on. But if people who understand and are concerned about these issues do not engage with the political class, they will continue with the vote bank politics of caste, religion, favours and appeasement.
We have chosen parliamentary democracy system of government and are proud of being the largest democracy. Over past 60 years we have evolved as a robust democracy, which many nations of the world can only hope for. We just need to peep into our neighbourhood to realize as to how fortunate we are to have enjoyed a credible and popular democracy from our birth as an independent nation, except for a brief period of emergency during 1970s.
Democracies depend upon citizen’s participation, to make an informed and collective choice every few years to choose their leaders and the governments which they hope and believe will serve them with honesty and sincerity.
An educated and well informed citizen making the right choice is the basic tenet of a robust democracy. Unfortunately, given the much maligned image of our political class, educated civil society has chosen to stay away from exercising this fundamental right. While we criticize them, we don’t want to be even remotely engaged with the politics or political leaders.
This is the reason why political class ignores the educated civil society and focuses on rural, urban poor and marginalized sections of the society. Politicians entice these sections with favours, appeasement, money and muscle power. They become the vote banks, based on caste, religion, region and language.
This has resulted in a chicken & egg situation. Since we don’t like the current day politicians, we do not engage in the political process. But since we don’t engage in the political process we don’t get politicians of our choice. This vicious circle needs to be broken.
It is obvious that politicians would care only for those who vote for them. Disengaging has only done us harm by producing criminals and thugs as politicians. Time has come for us to engage with political class and make our VOTE count.
Let’s start not just engaging but aligning. If we align with a party or a candidate and assure them of our vote, they will be happy and willing to look into our concerns and issues.
We often hear that educated people are so few that their vote won’t matter. This is a myth.
Post delimitation, 2009 Lok Sabha will have 120 urban constituencies (out of a total of 543), which decide their winner by a margin of just few thousand votes. So a determined and informed educated middle class, voting as a block based on issues of governance and development, will become the swing vote bank, which will be courted by every party. So lets not underestimate the power of SWING VOTE of determined educated civil society.
More on SWING VOTE in the Next Article.