Whosoever
wins this election, Youth has failed miserably!
India,
world’s largest democracy, whose generations have seen expeditious economic
growth and yet realized what it meant belonging to a culturally rich nation, is
participating in arguably the longest elections this summer to choose it's next
Prime Minister. (I know they just choose the Member of Parliament!). In the
final leg of elections now, it’s a matter of week when we would see if India
re-elects the current government or for our surprise (At least to some) it witnesses
a power shift!
As
of now it could be any three results possible but regardless of whom India
chooses to be next Prime Minister, it is pertinent to observe the peculiarity
of this Election. The back and forth quest of political parties to defeat each
other have seen, like every other Indian Election, slanderous remarks,
scandalous allegations, controversial candidatures and to be fair we expected
this election to get as spicy as it got but unfortunately, it was worse.
Having seen now three elections actively in my life I can simply conclude and
which won’t be an exaggeration that what we witnessed this summer was lowest
level of morality, humility, and integrity in election campaigns across India
with candidates stooping as low as calling Godse[1] a patriot and
invoking feeling of ‘us’ & ‘them’ or indulging in verbal spat with
candidates not sparing even families and loved ones, irrespective of any
political party which did nothing but distance itself from these ‘personal
remarks’. The worst part of it was the ‘normalisation’ of all wrong deeds which
has now became quintessential in name of election tricks but departs
from ethics whatsoever little we had when it came to the dirty game of politics
which is as daunting as polarisation (Again Normalised like an Ice- cream) in
democracy for electoral gains.
This
election also saw another obnoxious peculiarity in continuation of the absurd
remarks; the bleak campaigns from either side with no election narrative and
nearly issue-less speeches. This election as per The Hindu[2] became
or succumbed to religion. To give you a perspective this election was held at
the brink of the third decade of 21st century.
If you have followed the election you may agree of not hearing issues like
economic growth and GDP ambiguity[3],
development, Job deficiency or loss in jobs[4],
effects of demonetisation, etc. even the government was seen majorly not
boasting on the good deed howsoever less or more it did in the course of last
five years all which was served to us on the platter was aggressive
performative nationalism[5],
historical distortions, Hindu-Muslim tussle, Personal hatred, divisiveness and
vindictiveness with no vision for new India blatantly violating the ‘Selective’
Model Code of Conduct. It also was reduced to equating an individual to India
and seeking votes in the name of hero worshipism and bigotry. It can therefore
safely be said it was the most polarised election we saw and which shall be
owned up by every political party (The violence in Bengal, Hate speech in
Bengaluru north, Religious speech in Pilibhit, etc.)
But
this isn’t the true ‘Idea of India’ which is progressive, liberal (Economically
and ideologically), political and secular as it does not cater to its first
time voters who are young and restless. In this election, there were 84 Million[6] first-time
voters who are ranging from at least 18 years to 25 and significantly active
on social media who have graduated from school looking for college or graduated
from college looking for Job. Youth, which is unknown to the 1992 tragedy which
has become liberal in terms of drinking, dating, asking personal choice,
seeking freedom and liberty as per a CSDS Report.
So
how are these political parties still seeking votes with no substantive
election narratives which affect the youth or is for their upliftment and
benefit? It is such a sorry situation to say that today the election strategy
of political party revolves around these first time voters and yet the
narratives which we are served is what we end up condemning political parties
for, but the catch is we are served on the platter what we ask for. It is, as
much as political parties’ fault of the inability in providing agenda for
election, our fault not adamantly asking from them.
With
almost all of this age group on social media and effectively no regulation of
this media, the progressive youth of this country has fallen prey to the
ridiculous the idea of divisive politics, fielding of an alleged terrorist as
candidate and ineffective opposition voice. In last 4 and half years and] this
summer, The youth of this nation has failed miserably!
This
might change with so much young and active people joining politics and fighting
elections and raising voices but for now it’s too late!
Or
maybe just maybe, to much of our dismay, Subramanian Swamy[7] was correct
when he said “Elections
are not won with economy but with sentiments and Ram Mandir will make you win
the election not economic growth”
(All images are subject to
copyright)
[1] https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/national/pragya-calls-godse-a-patriot-bjp-distances-itself-from-comment/article27151933.ece
[2] https://www.thehindu.com/elections/lok-sabha-2019/religion-has-taken-over-all-aspects-of-life/article26905407.ece
[3] https://www.livemint.com/news/india/how-india-s-statistical-system-was-crippled-1557250292753.html
[4] https://in.reuters.com/article/india-election-jobs/five-million-lost-jobs-in-india-between-2016-and-2018-report-idINKCN1RT1I3
[5] https://scroll.in/article/916471/its-advantage-bjp-again-as-nationalism-displaces-livelihood-issues-from-political-narrative
[7] https://www.bloombergquint.com/politics/budget-2019-ram-mandir-not-economics-will-win-you-election-says-subramanian-swamy
