Lofty promises by political parties on eve of elections ominous for Indian democracy
By Sushil Kutty
People fought kings and queens, sultans and maharajas, for exercising their right to vote. Those were days when democracy was nascent and voting was limited to where the magna carta prevailed and where immigrants took over part of a continent and called it ‘New World’.
Then, when they corralled native Indians in reservations, the New World prospered, democracy got a foothold and couldn’t be erased. Then, when women were still not allowed to vote, another struggle got going. Today, with the spread of electoral democracy, there is no stopping women from exercising their precious right to vote.
But all that is now in the marketplace of democracy, where votes are sold to the highest bidder, gifted away to carriers of bundles of currency, democracy be damned. Everybody is in the game, the women at the forefront. Willing partners greedy for the proceeds of crime.
No religious head speaks against the pernicious practice. In fact, some religious people actually give sermons on selling votes to the highest bidder. Some call for ‘Vote Jihad’, others ask for votes in the name of ‘Hindutva’. Any day of the week is good for the sermon.
Also political parties have turned ‘bribes for votes’ into a family affair. Everyone, who is of the voting age adult in the family, votes except the kids and everybody ostensibly votes for change and not for small-change!
Notes for votes. Others refer to it as ‘cash for votes’. It doesn’t matter what the moniker is, it is the same fraud. What stands out is, the voters themselves are guilty of driving democracy into the ground. Indian voters, especially, are easily swayed not just by slogans but also by the money on offer from political parties of all hues: Bribes in cash and in kind for votes.
The majority of India’s voters live in scarcity. Quite a big segment of them will sell their mothers-in-law for a few thousand rupees. Political parties are vying with each other to get the votes of everybody in the household, including the otherwise hard to sway mother-in-law!
Votes are priced at rates that range from Rs 1000 per vote to Rs 2500 per vote. The Congress flaunts its poll-eve promises. The BJP outdos the Congress with its election-promises. And aiming to become Delhi Chief Minister again, Arvind Kejriwal has his fixed ‘rate-card’ for Delhi’s voters who have a guileless faith in Kejriwal, which has only strengthened after the couple of stints Kejriwal spent in jail.
That being said, all political parties and their star politicians are in the game. Nobody is there to blow the whistle on the fraud played with impunity. The other day, the BJP joined the gang in Delhi, strengthening the growing belief that Prime Minister Narendra Modi can no longer fool with ‘telly-talk’. The BJP’s slew of election-eve promises, announced by party President JP Nadda, who apparently is irreplaceable, proves all over again that two/three can play the game. AAP’s poll promises pales in front of the BJP’s bribes for votes. There is a cash component for women voters and those in kind take the cake!
The Election Commission has no policy to contain or put to a stop the practice. Political parties and voters, and bodies responsible to hold free and fair elections, minus the ‘shero-shayari’ and other garnishments, are all partners in this crime with the proceeds of the crime spread across the spectrum. The prevailing description is ‘promises’, i.e., political parties can promise anything under the sun to bribe the voter for his/her vote.
There is no bar on the voter to “accept bribes” from as many political parties as are in the fray. Bribes are paid beforehand and for the voter nothing beats “bribes” for their votes. ‘Promises’, on the other hand, carry the risk of not being fulfilled. The
Congress promise Rs 8500 per vote wasn’t kept. When the time came for ‘Kata-kat-kata-kat’, there was no sign of the Congress ‘hand.’ The BJP has now taken the cue and has made its own promises. The Aam Aadmi Party has also taken note and rolled out its own set of promises.
Promises are considered ‘kosher’ and standard practice. The Election Commission acts like everything is above board and “checking helicopters” ferrying candidates from one rally to another is all that has to be done. It doesn’t matter that voters are being bribed, induced and lured to vote for this or that political party.
Voters can be persuaded to “sell their votes” for as little as a couple of 1000 bucks. That it carries the stigma of “free cash” shouldn’t matter to the good-for-nothing honest people who don’t look askance at those who “sell” their votes to the highest bidder.
Entire households are in it for currency notes. The Bharatiya Janata Party has promised to give Rs 2,500 every month to every woman of Delhi and Rs 26000 to women who get in the family way. The BJP might as well set up a ‘Semen Bank’ c/o party president JP Nadda, with branches like the ‘Mohalla Clinic’ of the AAP!
Entire households, from father to mother and son to daughter, are committing the same crime: Selling their votes to political parties for cash, kind and spirit! The practice is pernicious and entrenched. Take away this right and there will be suicides!
And if you think the ‘South’ is free of the scourge, take a break. Tamil Nadu, for example, is a hub for frauds of such kind, full of merchants of votes. Tamil Nadu voters are spoiled for “gifts” – from TV sets men and women, laptops to boys and bicycles for schoolgirls.
Cash mounts matched the inebriation component in the ‘bribes for votes’ racket. Cash changed hands as easily as sweat leapt from one damp palm to another. There was no need to look behind and over the shoulder. Everybody in the queue was complicit and had the back of the one ahead and the one behind.
South-based political parties, such as the DMK, and the AIADMK, pioneered the ‘Cash for Votes’ start-up. In families with three, four, five and six votes, imagine the loot! Everybody went home after voting smiling. Nobody cared and the object called ‘shame’ was in short supply. Feelings of remorse never crosses the minds of vote-sellers and vote-buyers. It never occurs to any of the members of the same family that each one of them is corrupt to the core. The Gods themselves couldn’t have stopped the daylight robbery. Nowadays, this brand of democracy-related corruption has spread to all corners of the nation.
Election after election, political parties make “promises” and voters willingly and eagerly fall into the “trap.” Today, with Delhi elections round the corner, the AAP, the BJP, and the Congress, have announced their electoral promises and includes so-called ‘welfare schemes’ for women and children, senior citizens and special sections of society.
A comparison of the schemes is mind-boggling. Election-eve promises and “note for votes” and “cash for votes” have flooded the electoral market and it is an ugly noise they’re making. What really is unforgiving is that everybody is in it together. Everybody with the halo of holier than thou! From the Prime Minister to the Leader of the Opposition, from the erstwhile ‘jailbird’ to the voter with a vote to sell! (IPA Service)