By Tushar Mangl:
In almost every democratic nation in the World, the voters are facing a similar dilemma. Local vs. National. Whom to choose? Which side to take? Aren’t both the same? You love your own locality as much as your nation. So when elections come, why are we being made to make a choice out of both.
Let me explain this in the Indian context. Lok Sabha Elections 2014 are on and most of the Indian voters are passive. They think less and are in more of a herd mentality. But here we are talking about those voters who are in a thinking mode. They make themselves aware and are quite opinionated as to who should run their country. Now, like in every representative democracy, you have local representatives who will go to the Parliaments, make laws and policies and decide on which course the country would run. Then mostly, these people will decide who the Prime Minister or President would be. Most of the times, either officially or unofficially, a PM nominee is announced before the polls.
Here is where the dilemma begins. What if you don’t like your local representative but like the Prime Ministerial candidate? Or vice versa? You ask a number of voters in India, and they are voting for Narendra Modi. Most of the times they won’t even know who the Member of Parliament for their constituency will be. Same is the case with the Indian National Congress. And its true for the opposite scenario too. Some MP candidates are good but the voters are unhappy with the national leaders. What to do now? Shouldn’t it be a simple answer? Anyone who will work for you, should get your vote? But what if my MP is good for nothing and my PM is good? What benefit that would get me?
Increasingly, with each successive elections, the personality cult is only amplifying. The grassroots connect of the national leaders is dwindling. We are seeing an increasing number of parachute candidates, forced upon the local leaders, dispatched from Delhi. Also, the expectations of the average voter is rising. They want the best deal. A good local leader and a good national leader. Will they get the ideal combo?
It looks highly unlikely. The national leaders are outsourcing the hard grunt work to local mafias, dons and select influential people. You can easily gauge that with the high number of candidates having multiple criminal records. That and multi millionaires. Most of the Parliamentarians being elected today are millionaires and billionaires. Seeing their wealth, one cannot believe that approx 40 % of people in India are poor. Does the thinking voter really desire such representatives? How can we be sure that they will take up matters of importance in the Parliament. Read here as to how they are actually spending there local area development funds.
It is a question of deep thought. If you have any idea to solve such a dilemma, do write in your comments. Who does a voter vote for? The local representative or the Prime Ministerial candidate? We surely need both to be perfect for our area or region to progress.