Election Diaries: Part Two
Choice. Making a choice arises due to the problem of scarcity. It is an act of choosing one among the many options available. Also, choices mean that one alternative is preferred over the other. Hence people innovate, differentiate and market products based on the needs of the people. This provides people with various alternatives and drives the economy of the world. However, in recent days, the choices are not the problem. Instead, it is ‘more choices’, that is creating discontent among the people. A young student is faced with various choices available when he comes out of school. It is those options, that confuse and instil fear in him/her. What if I make the wrong choice? In economics, it is called ‘choice overload’.
Similarly, democracy is all about choice i.e., to choose a representative. However, despite having an average of 40 candidates in a constituency, it is not the ‘choice overload’ that frustrates the voter. But, the button at the bottom, NOTA (None of the Above), which disapproves all candidates, is domineering the minds of young voters. What does NOTA mean?
NOTA, a button or a word, may be new but the process is not. Earlier when voting happened on ballot papers, if the voter cast the vote into the ballot box without stamping on any candidate (when he/she didn’t have confidence on any candidate), that would be considered as ‘negative vote’. When the country replaced the ballot papers with EVMs, the voter, who didn’t prefer any candidates, had to fill a form separately. Supreme court, in a judgment, scrapped that practice, citing that it violated the right to secrecy. In addition, it asked the election commission to include a button at the bottom where the people could express the opinion of disapproving the candidates. Interestingly, the court says that the right to vote involves right not to vote for any candidate as well.
Having said that, if by any chance the NOTA secured the largest number of votes in a constituency, the commission would declare the candidate who secured the second most number of votes as the winner. Even the votes polled in NOTA would not be considered as valid votes and hence would not be calculated for the forfeiture of deposit.
In an extensive study on NOTA votes polled between 2013 and 2016, published in ‘Economic and Political Weekly’, authors classified the constituencies with the largest number of NOTA votes polled into three categories in which the first two places are intriguing. First, came the reserved constituencies where only the candidates from the scheduled castes/tribes can contest the election. The authors argue that most NOTA votes polled in these constituencies could be due to caste prejudice where voters from different castes are reluctant to vote for those candidates. Second, came the constituencies which are affected by the left-wing extremism. Here, people chose NOTA because of their non-trust in the elections.
When we take a bird’s-eye view on that button, NOTA is preferred, not as intended or expected by the Supreme Court. People vote for NOTA, not because there is no proper candidate, instead, they go for NOTA because they don’t believe the system in general and democratic values in particular. Even, some decided to vote for NOTA, before the candidates are declared. To put it in a different perspective, these people, democratically vote ‘no’ for democracy. While anyone can express their opinion in a democracy, it is important to know the values of democracy.
Democracy is the form of government where the people elect their representatives. While one assumes, any form of government is created only for the welfare of the people during its inception, what matters is how it performs in the long run. In all other forms of government (such as monarchy, dictatorship, military rule etc.,), few leaders may work for the society. But when there is a wrong leader (one who doesn’t work for the welfare of the people), it usually creates bloodshed or revolution for the removal of the leader, leading to restlessness and mobocracy. On the other hand, in democracy, it happens during elections with the smooth transfer of power. Hence, democracies around the world have shown an appreciable amount of progress in the development of humanity.
While democracy as a part of the government is appreciated, the democratic values convince one to support it. Democratic values are all about more and equal rights (including free speech, religious practice, vote etc.,). Hence, all democracies enshrine those values in the fundamental law of the country and every elected government works to strengthen them. One of my friends told me that it was good to restrict some rights for the poor to get a loaf of bread. Democratic values, by no means, affect the economic prospects of the individuals in society. It is the economic policy of the government that determines them. Certainly, the implementation of economic policies varies in different forms of government and around the world, democracy has produced good economic outcomes both in the short and long term.
Born as a human being, one should acknowledge that one is neither completely perfect nor imperfect as such. At the same time, it is largely impossible to satisfy all the people all the time. Every activity should be traded off with other. Hence, while making a choice in a democracy, it is not just the personal values of the candidate that should engulf your vision but their ideologies and policies. Those live in this world forever. Hence, while voting for the election, you should vote for the candidate who you think will pursue the ideology and policy that suit the democratic values. Though it is the responsibility of an elected member to work for the constituency (by bringing government initiatives to the constituency and to represent them), the primary and the most important ones are to legislate laws and to supervise the executive wing of the government. The laws, drafted by them, have a touch of ideology upon which his/her party relies. Those laws will have an ever-lasting impact on humanity.
I am not sure if society creates a leader or vice-versa. That may be a sort of the chicken-egg question. However, surely, society influences the leader and hence if people pursue the ideology which promotes compassion, it will be the best nudge for the elected members.
In this election, when you make a choice, among various other parameters to be considered, the first thing to be ticked is to choose the party with an ideology which enriches the democratic values. Clearly, NOTA is not an option in a multi-party democracy like ours. It may be the result of the democratic values but it clearly doesn’t support them.
