Thoughts on 2014 Elections

I have kept this blog free from political topics so far, but with the election fever gripping the whole nation, it is not possible to avoid the temptation of taking a mad look at the colorful scenario.

Elections is a very simple concept - every citizen exercises his right to vote to elect the government of his choice. However, as a voter, I am really perplexed with all the noises in the air to the point that it is incredibly hard to make a choice, and I find myself grappling with several questions:

• What should be my criteria of making a choice? - Communalism, corruption, governance, development, water, electricity, food, education, jobs, road, foreign policy, economic policy, inflation, GDP growth, reservation, women safety, law and order, or something else? 
• Even if I come up with a prioritized list of selection criteria, is there a choice that satisfies all the key criteria? Very often, you may have to make a trade-off from the available options, e.g.
• Should my vote go to the Congress party that has the maximum experience of being in the government, and not give any weightage to corruption and lack of governance during their tenure?
• Should I go for BJP and Narendra Modi who promises good governance and development and choose to forget the perception about his tainted past and communal leanings? 
• Should I vote for the new Aam Aadmi Party that wants to bring revolutionary changes in the system and ignore their poor show that exposed a lack of ability to govern? 
• Should I vote for strong regional parties led by Amma, Didi, Behanji, or Netaji?
• Should I prefer good candidate or good party?

This is already way more confusion than what I can safely handle. Another dimension to this puzzle is how I want my vote to be used? You may ask,"You use your vote to choose the government. What is the ambiguity there?".  Well, ideally yes, but practically, I have seen over the years that your vote can be utilized in a number of different ways. For desirable outcome, you need to be aware of how you want your vote to be used.

To Elect the Government 
This is the case when the candidates that you vote for wins to become an MP and his party gets a majority and forms the government. In this case, your vote is used to to elect the government of your choice. This is the outcome we have in mind most often when we vote.

To Elect a King Maker
When the candidates that you vote for wins and his party has enough seats to help a bigger party form a coalition government, your vote has elected a king maker. Most governments in recent decades have been formed this way.

To Elect the Opposition
When the candidate you vote for wins, but his party does not get majority, your vote has helped elect the opposition that plays a crucial role to keep the government on its toes. So, at times, you may want to exercise your vote to ensure that there is an effective opposition. However, remember that the opposition MP you elect has neither adequate influence nor accountability to improve the situation.

To defeat the Candidate / Party you dislike
If the candidate you voted for loses, your vote did not help elect the government or opposition. However even such a vote can be useful at times, in situations where the division of votes helps stop a really bad candidate that you wanted to stop from winning. Hence, this vote is really used to defeat the candidate you dislike, even if the elected candidate may not be of your choice.    


To Register your protest against Bad Candidates
What if we find all candidates equally bad? In this election we have a new option None of The Above (NOTA) to tackle such a case. By pressing this button, we register our vote against all the candidates. Such a vote is handy in determining if the elected candidate really enjoys the support of the people or not. Though it does not influence the outcome of the elections directly, a large number of NOTA in a constituency certainly puts a question mark on the mandate to the winner. Luckily, I do not have to resort to NOTA this time as I have a number of good choices both at the party level as well as in my constituency.  

To Let it go Waste

You may get so much disillusioned (or bored) with the system that you do not exercise your vote. Your vote goes a waste in this case. This is the least desirable option, though its a sad fact that a 30-40% of the population has been using this option till recently. I hope the situation improves this time.

How do you make a choice? If you want to use your vote to defeat the party you dislike, you can vote against its candidate, even if he seems popular and sure to win. If you are inclined to elect opposition with your vote, you have a wide choice of parties among which AAP tops the list, as people say that they have all the required traits of an effective and critical opposition. You can also vote for your favorite regional party if you are interested in electing a kingmaker, but this party may also land up in opposition as well.

However, If you are keen to elect the government with your vote, I am afraid the choice gets really narrowed down. Leaders of Aam Aadmi Party have themselves accepted that they are not playing for a win. Congress seems too tired already to make the mark. That leaves you with only one choice - Take it or leave it. - Narendra Modi.

It seems his party is all set to win. The options you have are narrowed down to the following:

• Elect him
• or elect his allies
• or elect the party of your choice in the role of his opposition.

That may be why you see so many friends who are saying, "Enough of this business of electing allies or opposition. I want to have the government of my choice this time and give it a chance to bring in some positive changes." 

    

अबकी बार - मेरी सरकार

Have these friends taken the right decision? You decide, but do go out and vote. Let your vote not go waste. 

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Disclaimer: This post does not intend to show disrespect to any political party or leader. This is meant to be a look at the political scenario of the country today, nothing more.