Jai Maharashtra

Brij Nath Betab
The Good news is that Maharashtra finally has a government in place and the Electronic Voting Machines along with their VVPAT Slips have been exonerated of the stigma of unreliability. The sad news however is that before the voters of this western state could see their votes fructify the doyen of Indian elections and the legendary poll reformer, former Chief Election Commissioner of India, Tirunellai Narayan Iyer Seshan passed away at the age of 86 at his home in Chennai. He was not a politician so there was no official mourning, not even in his home state. Though on record politicians from Modi to Stalin paid homage to him, yet he died unsung so to say. I am invoking him here as his services to the electoral system in India have been so immense that despite the post poll power tussle in Maharashtra between different political parties that eroded the power of vote and the right of a voter, the game changing reforms that he made to the Indian parliamentary voting institution will always deter the power hungry politicians from grinding down the basis of elections. His main contribution was the strict enforcement of the model code of conduct that politicians tend to flout.
The game changing reforms that he introduced and implemented made voting in Indian elections truly democratic. It was during his six year commissionership between 1990 and 1996 at the Nirvachan Sadan that he took bold steps to curb violations of the rule book and ensured free and fair elections. In real sense he ‘cleaned the electoral system’ and made erring politicians behave. Politicians called him ‘Arrogant’. Today the sad story is that whatever he had achieved got buried almost with his last journey. How sad. And the sadness has been recast by the political events in Maharashtra. Though there is a government in place now yet the ‘political drama’ that we watched on television channels since the day of counting of votes on 24th October 2019 has posed many questions and put a question mark on the holding of elections and application of voting itself for which T N Seshan stood. He perhaps wanted ‘Democratic India’ to transform into a ‘Liberal Democratic Welfare state’, wherein the focus would be on ‘Social Good’ rather than the ‘political better’.
Analyzing the political events in Maharashtra the first bout of irritation and dismay should be tossed upon the head of eligible voters of the state where the literacy rate is about 83% and the voter turnout was less than 64 percent. This clearly shows lack of interest among the electorate who are fed up like any other Indian citizen with the false promises of selfish, greedy and power hungry politicians. It is here that the need to make voting compulsory assumes significance. The ‘obligation to vote’ as done in the Gujarat local bodies election some years ago must be incorporated and enshrined in the constitution by amending the citizenship act.
The scenario created by Shiv Sena after the election results were declared needs to be given a serious thought. What was apparent was observable for common masses but what was not evident may not be apparent to us as politics has become an offstage game. Whatever be the inner secret, it is crystal clear that the voters of Maharashtra voted for an alliance of BJP-Shiv Sena. And when the combination emerged victorious the unpredicted and astonishing happened. The yearning to put the chief minister’s hat on his own son overwhelmingly overpowered the brains of Shiv Sena boss. The matter would have ended and they would have formed the government if B J P had succumbed to the post poll demand of its partner. Having secured more seats than Shiv Sena B J P logically wanted its own C.M. Presuming that the chief Minister’s Post was the only bone of contention, it is B J P who should be repenting its adamant attitude. It may sound very simple and the truth may be complex but the fact remains that the primary objective of any political party is to acquire political power. The goal is power; whether to acquire or share with someone. Shiv Sena knew that B J P has not numbers on its own so it exploited the shrink. B J P illumined with its Goa experience could not envisage that Shiv Sena could break a thirty year old alliance to fulfill its aspiration of ruling Maharashtra, its bastion state. B J P also failed to visualize the role (game) that the old stalwart hugely experienced Sharad Pawar could play. For Congress the proverb from the treatise on statecraft Arthashastra that ‘enemy of my enemy is my most beloved friend’ proved proper and accurate. To them the opportunity proved to be a blessing in disguise. B J P and Shiv Sena equally provided an opportunity to the party and it made good use of the events to show B J P that some ‘Chanakya’ is present in the sunken ship of the grand old party too and that the party cannot always be outsmarted by others. In the process both have lost. B J P lost the power and Shiv Sena lost its credibility and the trust of its voters who voted for the alliance and is now frustrated and feels let down .He had rejected NCP and Congress both and to his dismay they have become his rulers. The voter of the state, where more than fifteen thousand farmers have taken their life during the last six years, does not have many expectations from them. A common Maharashtrian today is too worried about his future with regard to the Aghadi rule. He is worried about the attitude and actions of certain politicians in the ruling Aghadi. Observers would be carefully watching the future moves that would lead to fulfilling the dream of “Coronation of the crown prince”. Private individuals in Maharashtra privately express apprehensions that some jailed politicians may be released with total disregard to law. Some fear that the alliance members have their own Vikas in mind rather than the Vikas of a voter. Why should otherwise an alliance break for the bargain of a Chief Minister’s Post.
Shiv Sena may celebrate today but it has to look beyond Vidhan Sabha and Mantralaya where it’s Patron and founder Bala Sahab Thackeray would have never entered on the crutches provided by Congress and NCP. For B J P the Shiv Sena and earlier the PDP experiments and experience shall prove to be bitter pills that may have blessed effects. The fact however remains that Shiv Sena has helped NCP and Congress to resurrect and Ajit Pawar will soon be properly rewarded for that.
The Maharashtra politics today has thrown a big challenge to the present day parliamentary democratic system where a ‘universal adult franchise’ has been rendered infructuous by not respecting the voter’s absolute sovereign will that should have been supreme and sacrosanct. This calls for electoral reforms.
The intimidation of voters and the use of money and muscle power must be curbed by totally doing away with the practice of campaigning for elections as is being done now. The electioneering period facilitates politicians to hoodwink the innocent voters. Instead the resources and the time period shall be used to propagate the election manifesto. Election manifesto shall become the basis of judging the intent of individual politicians and their parties rather than their political speeches. A candidate’s performance in the past or his own and his rival’s manifesto for next term should become the deciding criteria for choosing one’s representative by free will and fair practice. Social media can prove to be a tool in this. Local bodies should be associated in a bigger way with the spending of funds by elected representatives to curb corrupt practices. In the anti defection law a clause must be incorporated to deter parties from forming post poll alliances where a pre poll alliance is broken.
With regard to elections, what matters the most for a common voter is the value of his vote. Under the 61st constitutional amendment the Citizenship Act gives every Indian of 18 years of age the right to vote to choose his representative and elect a government of his choice but in Maharashtra a common voter’s right to franchise has been infringed upon by the political parties that formed an ‘After poll alliance’ to capture the power and occupy the Chief Ministers Chair. This is a big and cruel joke with the voters, the common citizens of the state, who had voted for an alliance that was presented during the electioneering as a prospective government forming alliance. Our only hope is that the democratic arrangement provides for judicial system and in that our courts are supreme. For this we thank heavens for small mercies.
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