Are elections all about change? Do they reach out to the common man asking him to choose between a ‘thank you’ and a ‘good riddance’ on the lips or on placards? Or are they about sniggers and vacuous kerbside analysis by minds that have rarely gone beyond the self? Or going further, are they about a stoic ‘no thank you’ to people whom the people hardly know? Or are elections about the celebration or misery of a political party?

The reason why I have begun this article with a set of questions is because I believe that every election is about the validity of questions raised. The post-election period, of course, is about the way these questions are answered or left to engage with the society. Elections teach us why a questioning attitude is what helps a society evolve. Like any other election, I have noticed that even this assembly election in Delhi has tended to raise a whole new set of questions… both in the minds of the electorate and by the politicians. Let us examine some of the questions that have ruled the past few months.

Corruption

Just look at the way this word has evolved over many elections. It was taboo to even use it if you go back in the past… and then a time came when every party was using it to describe the other party. Corruption went hand-in-hand with ‘you’ or ‘them’ or ‘they’ but this election has changed it all. Now every party, every politician is going all out to prove that corruption within them is what is poised to be cleansed. Corruption has suddenly hopped from others to self and its removal has become inescapable.

So we, as a democracy, have evolved from ‘you are corrupt’ to ‘there is corruption within me’. This is wonderful indeed. Political parties are directing these questions internally and are claiming that all action is going to be taken to remove this menace from their own core before allowing this cleansing phase to enter other arenas. It is AAP that started this race and others, including the Congress and the BJP had to follow suit. I know they are still reluctant followers of this ‘is-there-corruption-within-me?’ gang but they now have no other alternative.

Is there corruption within me?
Is it time to get rid of the corruption within me?

The two introspective questions above have inevitably led to the questions that follow. Questions that the electorate is now unabashedly asking:

How fast and how effectively will you rid the corruption within you?
How open are you to discuss corruption issues and solving them?

I am really not surprised that this election in Delhi and in other States and the looming parliamentary elections in the coming year have not just propped up these questions on corruption but have also ensured that they step out of the twilight zone of mere promises and remain standing until the right sort of solutions are activated.

Sewak

‘Are we representing you or not? Then just have faith in us and be happy,’ is the arrogant way the people of India have been conditioned to be these past years since independence. Not so now.

One fledgling party primed the explosive debate on politicians being servants and their prime assignment being ‘service’. We have reached a stage when even the two major parties openly announce that they are ‘sewaks’. Not so long back, these very politicians were accustomed to parping about legislation being their part of the deal and all we the public did was to sit back and watch with helplessness as they massacred one reason after another to give us laws that ultimately benefitted those who represented us in the assemblies. These politicians, who now race to proclaim themselves as ‘sewaks’ were more interested in asking for beacons for their cars, Z-security, allowances, accommodation, and all that would make them exclusive and inaccessible to the masses.

Now the politicians realise that India wants ‘sewaks’ and not ‘shasaks’… we want to elect people who are willing to serve and not wanting to just rule. The vital question doing the rounds is: Do we need rulers?

Obviously then, a mere ‘thank you’ and ‘good riddance’ is no longer as important as questions like:
Is it time for politicians to actualise themselves as sewaks?
Are rulers what India needs?

Politicians know this. Politicians realise this. Politicians and political parties have already braced themselves for generic changes that this election is going to bring them. No, it isn’t going to be the euphoria of ruling… it is going to be the sombre realisation that the post-election period has large dollops of ‘niswarth sewa’ now. And that they need to bloody well do it without their customary grimace and reluctance.

Looking forward

It is the right questions that enable a country inch forward. This election is all about the right questions being brought into the open. Not that these questions were absent or were not relevant earlier… or that they were submissive or reluctant earlier. The sordid truth is that politicians can no longer follow what Oliver Goldsmith once famously said: ‘Ask me no questions, and I’ll tell you no lies.’ They are the ones who need to be ready to face all the questions. In fact, the right attitude is what this election has already brought out… a politician asking the right questions and not just questioning the validity of other politicians and political parties in the fray.

The electorate now wants to ‘judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers’ as Voltaire puts it. This is why we have been reading and hearing the most pertinent questions this election season. Yes, we will obviously say ‘no, thank you’ to some and will welcome some… but questions will be here and will need answers.

The election ritual

The election ritual

 

Arvind Passey
09 December 2013

Article published in ‘The Education Post’… jpeg will be added later