Shyam Sudan
We are the inhabitants of the largest democracy of the world. We have firm faith in different institutions of the democracy. Millions of voters cast their votes in different elections across the country to elect their representative for different political bodies.
The enthusiasm and eagerness of voters has increased in every election. Indian voters never fed up with the hectic and frantic schedules of election. No doubt, in these elections the different representatives allure their voters by different political hollow assurances and political gimmicks. But despite having bitter experience of such reality Indian voters never betrayal or show any resistance towards this political festival. With the hope of some positive change and for their comfortable future, every time, Indian voters fell prey to such hollow assurances of political parties.
In our country, there are voters of every age-group. In every election, we have seen that people of all ages from new voters to old age categories participate with same spirit. Even the persons who couldn’t walk due to their old age condition or physical deformity reach different polling booth to cast their votes. Recently in Bihar, West Bengal and UP Panchayat elections, we noticed that a large number of voters participated in election despite COVID-19 pandemic. From the announcement of polling dates to announcement of poll result, Indian voters keenly participate in every activity with patience and eagerness.
Even after declaration of poll result these voters shows respect for different constitutional bodies and their working. These days, we have seen that even world’s greatest nation is suffering from political uncertainty and chaos due to resentment of voters.
Political violence and resentment of voters is the fashion of the democracy in such nations which are known for their strongest democracy. But in India we are gradually entering into a new face of election engineering. Now a days we believe in the motto of ‘peace and participation’. However our elections are mostly caste, colour and religion based. But despite having such hurdles of caste, religion and other communal bases the rate of political violence is gradually reducing with a rapid pace .people participate in every election in great numbers whether it is at assembly, state or districts level.
Moreover interesting fact is that the rural people are more aware and dedicated towards their duty of franchise than the urban one. In different nations of the world democracy is in malaise, but here in our country we celebrate it just like a gala event. Our streets and every nook and corner are pasted with decorative pamphlets of contesting candidates and political parties’ symbol.
A large number of people attended the rallies and other stage events of political parties during election campaigning. It shows the interest, curiosity and involvement of Indian voters. In our country mostly elections are conducted by ballot box system or with help of EVMs. Many times the defeating candidates and political parties has raised questions over the credibility and working of EVMs . This thing create chaos and confusion in the minds of voters which is not beneficial for our democracy. Every political party and candidates must avoid such type of fake allegations to restore faith of voters in our democratic set-up. Even the election commission of India has given the open challenge to prove the malfunctioning of EVM. But nobody has prove the malfunctioning of EVM and in its software and hardware parts so far. Voters of our country have full faith in the management and working of our election commission. There is a popular saying that politics is not a good game.
But Indian voters have different perspective for politics. Now many young people want to take part in politics. Participation of young generation in politics is a good thing.
By and large we can say that every individual in our country is a good politician and have the depth of understanding of political structure and its functioning. During election days generally people discussed various issues at every nook and corner of the country. Role of media is also very pivotal in this direction.
Media has created the interest of voters towards the politics. Usually many political debates and other events are organised by media in different Corners of the country. Such things create interest of common masses towards our political system.
Media is popularly known as fourth pillar of democracy and no doubt it is playing a constructive role in strengthening the democracy. No doubt a huge amount of money spent on the frequent and repetition of election in our country. But it is a mandatory to give strength to our democracy. We can adopt the technique and formula of one nation one election. Simultaneous election is the only plausible solution for checking the expenditure on election.
The positive aspect of our democracy is that people responded every new initiative in a very easy manner. It resembles that the future of democracy in our country is very bright and glorious. No doubt different barriers of caste, religion and language are still prevalent in our society.
But the faith of people is always above all such things. We are moving in the right direction despite of all hurdles and hindrances in our society.
We can say that politics and respect for democracy is deeply embedded in the veins of Indian voters.
And perhaps this is our strength and robustness. We can say that the future of Indian democracy is very bright. The faith and enthusiasm of our voters will definitely give a boost to our democracy.