Chandani Chowk to Baramati…
For last few occasions, I did not have the fortune of being able to vote due to foreign posting and extensive overseas travel. This time I was determined to cast my vote because the time for change has arrived. Last year I got my voter identification card issued by Election Commission of India and so I was rest assured that I would be in the queue to cast my vote on April 23, 2009. Generally political parties distribute voter registration slips in advance but we did not get them this time. However, ID card was a reassurance that nothing could go wrong. Communication Gap on Delimitation: Well in advance I was keeping a track of the candidates. I used to get printed hand outs of Mr.Arun Bhatia, independent candidate from Pune for last few months. He is believed to be an upright officer from IAS. I was quite disturbed with political chaos, rampant corruption, neglect of Pune City etc and I thought why not elect an upright, new but proven candidate and initiate a change. But as the elections were announced, I discovered that Supriya Sule from Baramati was to address people in our area. So I got on to the internet to find, much to my chagrin that our stretch of Chandani Chowk, NDA Road, Pune, was now in Baramati constituency due to delimitation exercise. PMC collects taxes from this neoprime area and for all purposes it is touted as “Deccan of Tomorrow”. I don’t know why a MP from Baramati should be worried about a stretch of a road in Pune. But when it comes to elections, the Election Commission is demigod. Therefore one can not question any decisions and logics. So my perceptions had to change with focus shifting from Pune candidates to Baramati candidates. The only well known candidate is Supriya Sule, not because of her own work but because of her illustrious father Sharad Pawar. Congress has not fielded any candidate due to understanding with NCP of Sharad Pawar. So next big party is BJP who has last minute fielded Kanta Nalawade. So I had to search on the internet about her back ground. All I could get was some 2004 election news items about her. Not enough to decide on her suitability or other wise. From some websites I could know the names, qualifications, & assets declared of 17 candidates contesting from Baramati. No other details like achievements, work done in public life, or even photographs etc of any candidates were available. Project Leader, Hide Candidate: I searched on the websites of all the major political parties. I could just get the list of candidates fielded but no further details on candidates. Most of the parties have given information about their top leaders but nothing about candidates. Does it mean that they
have no information? That is not possible. It just means that either they do not consider important enough to give basic background & achievements of the contestants or they want to rather hide it so that the dirt does not come out. Cost of Communication Per Vote: Come election time and the most important activities for all the politicians are to communicate with people in different ways. Our politicians have mastered the art of segmentation of people caste wise, community wise, region wise and several other criteria. It is reported that the expenditure of Rs 10,000 crores is expected to be incurred on Lok Sabha 2009 elections. There are some reports that in Andhra alone that much amount is being spent. There have been remarks that we are spending more than expenditure on US Presidential elections. Who says India is poor country? Out of all the money looted by the political parties from people over the years through pilferages, projects, contracts, commissions, bribes etc a small amount goes back to fund next election. A lot of this money is spent on cash payments, gifts, transportation, and liquor and as telecommunication people would like say on “last mile connectivity to the booth”. Anything they spend money on has to result into a favorable vote. With so much money on advertising in media, I am not sure how much can be converted into votes because of the missing links in the chain of communications. Today internet is the cheapest medium for reaching people. This is obviously for computer literate population. Even for not so literate people in villages CDs can be played up by the candidates to show all information in vernacular languages and even print outs can be distributed. The cost of reaching one potential voter can be drastically reduced by this electronic medium if used effectively. IT industry has talked about Rs. 5000 laptop for poor villagers soon. If that is implemented we have the channels ready to harness the potential of internet. Political parties also have talked of egovernance in rural areas at Panchayat level. Vote for Party, Not Candidate: It is strange that most of the political parties have not come forward to furnish details of candidates. Even print media has given sketchy information on select top candidates and only for few constituencies. They want us, the voters, to empower them to represent us in Lok Sabha but do not feel need to tell who they are? They want votes only on the strength of the top leader of the party. Are other candidates irrelevant for the voters? Anyway, I had no choice but to go by the policies and work done by the parties instead of candidates in absence of any information to decide whom to vote. When I went to the polling station, I was disappointed that my name was not there in the voter’s list of the
area. ID card of Election Commission of India was of no use. I came back home to check on web site of the Election Commission on the basis of ID number but it would not open with server errors for the rest of the day. It did open (and had the details) the next day but it was too late. Web site of the CEO, Maharashtra Govt, did give voters list for the constituency along with maps but again my name was missing. Maharashtra government had advertised and given mobile numbers to send SMS or speak for these details. I sent SMS giving ID card number but did not get response. I tried calling all numbers given but they were constantly engaged frustrating my efforts to cast vote and exercise my constitutional right. So my vote went for a toss from Chandani Chowk to Baramati! Next day morning I was surprised to know that maid servant had joined estimated 3500 potential voters for Kashi Yatra sponsored by a political party! So, where do we go from here? Watch out for this space for my Blog on electoral reforms. Vijay M.Deshpande Corporate Advisor, Strategic Management Initiative Pune May 1, 2009
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