General elections are not far. All of us have been discussing it – in private and in public. Talking about who will win and who will lose. The politicians are on their feet. We hope that we are also on our feet.
So, in the spirit of the current affairs, I have charted out a few pointers which we should keep in mind while going to vote. I am keeping my points limited to the republic-democratic set up of India, which is ruled by a written constitution.
Let me list them all first. They go one by one, like points of an argument:
- Vote
- Do not vote for a prime minister
- Do not vote for a political party
- Have a historical perspective of things
- Vote for the best candidate in your constituency
- Make those understand who are not as privileged as you are.
Vote:
- First things first. Please vote. You may think that you are not harming yourself by voting. But you are. A bad government will extract your labour from you via taxes and increased prices of products and services. It is simple to understand. If you do not understand it, do some research on the internet rather than complaining about the poor state of affairs. Learn to educate yourself. We do not just need schools. We also need self-learning individuals who have had the privilege of education, and yet they never stop learning. A government is a reflection of its citizens.
- When you vote, you make your voice count. Voting is an important step towards taking responsibility for your actions in a society which helps you thrive, and grow as an individual. Vote, because you are selfish. You are voting for yourself, remember that.
- If you do not like anyone, go for NOTA (none of the above). But do spend time in a long queue. You were anyway going to spend in a restaurant with your friends bitching about the current political scenario.
Also read: Please Don’t Choose My Prime Minister For Me
Do Not Vote For A Prime Minister:
- Voting for ONE PERSON has never been a good idea. A cursory look at history will provide you with substantial reasons. I do not wish to cite specific examples, because one of my points is: do your research.
- Power corrupts. And usually, the most capable have little idea how to wield it. Those who know how to wield it, are not capable enough. Dumbledore (in the Harry Potter series) was always against holding positions of power/authority because he knew he could end up misusing it. That is why we prefer democracy. And in democracy, there is no ‘one ruler’.
- We do not need a ruler. We need a collective of people called government in which no one wields so much power that they are able to take decisions single-handedly.
- A prime minister (refer Article 74-75 of Indian Constitution) is the executive head of the State. They are the head of the cabinet ministry. They control the portfolios of the ministers of the Cabinet. According to article 75, if the prime minister resigns (or dies), the whole cabinet dissolves. So they are significantly powerful.
- But if their party has a clear majority, their powers become even more extravagant. So there needs to be a subtle dilution if not of their powers, then their influence. Power takes a worse form when the one wielding power has too much influence.
- Ideally, the prime minister should be a representative/mouthpiece of the cabinet’s mutually discussed decisions, instead of a single authority on final decisions. A prime minister who is too influential in the cabinet starts converting whims into decisions. They are not far from becoming a dictator. A PM should not be the fountainhead of all those decisions which the other portfolio ministers have to accept because the party got into power due to one person’s influence. If the ministers of his cabinet are stooges, then there is NO cabinet. Except that we are paying for their amazing life with our tax money.
- We do not want a strong leader. The concept of a leader looks good when heading an army, or when there is an emergency. A ‘strong leader’ is three steps away from being a dictator. We want a strong cabinet ministry in which the prime minister is as answerable to the cabinet as they are to the PM. We want a group of people in central executive (cabinet) who come to a decision after a mutual discussion amongst each other. In other words, we do not want democracy just at the level of voters. We want democracy within the government. Not just macro, but also micro.
- To reiterate. When we vote explicitly for a prime minister, we give too much power even in the cabinet. That leads to the dilution of a whole cabinet ministry into one single person. Then the select person erects an army of personal stooges who will follow every word. This is nothing but a type of monarchy wearing the clothes of democracy.
- It will be like a jungle in which a government has one lion and a hundred donkeys and the donkeys have to bray when the lion asks/commands them to bray, because the jungle gave the lion too much power that it was able to choose its own army of donkeys. From murderers to rapists to religious reformers to businessmen with money who want more money, everyone starts walking behind a man who is given too much power by the people.
Also read: With A ₹500 Billion Budget, 2019 Elections Are Going To Be The Most Expensive In The World
Do Not Vote For A Political Party:
- Most of the members of a political party do not have any kind of ideological connection with the party. Most of them (prospective MPs) are there just because they have money and they want to earn more. This is a crude truth.
- The main workforce of a political party, the youth section, is there because there is unemployment, and the youngsters want a job. Most of them do not understand the ideology of their political party. They initially accept it by learning it; and then over the time, internalize it to substantiate to themselves, their nature of existence. To make themselves feel better.
- Beware of political parties which do not have a set ideology except that of constant appeasing.
Have A Historical Perspective Of Things:
- Do not forget. Be an elephant. Politicians succeed in fooling us when we suffer from amnesia. We deserve to be fooled if we suffer from perennial amnesia. Again: research. And as the next point suggests, you do not need to research a lot.
Vote For The Best Candidate In Your Constituency:
- Your job is very simple. Do not over think about what current PM is doing, or what other prospective PMs are doing. Just try to find an answer to this question: Which of the politicians standing for your constituency are not mere stooges?You will find that almost all of them are. But humans are not so petty minded. If you study carefully, you will find that at least one member of your constituency really cares for the people. Give them your precious vote. That is what is required of you. You are not supposed to be as educated as Shashi Tharoor and understand what is going on around the world, geopolitically. You just need to know what is going on around your house. Just that, and eat burgers with your loved ones.
- It might seem impossible, but if every one of us follows the same operative, we will have an assembly of people in the Lok Sabha who are not of a political party but are of a political constituency. There is some inherent flaw in a system in which the person who becomes our MP (wins from our place) cannot speak for our place in the Lok Sabha because they have to cater to the ‘higher’ needs of the political party.
- In a case, when the voters make it clear that they are not voting for a political party, but for the person they most immediately connected with, the government will fail to have a centre. It will turn into an anarchist-democracy. In a pure anarchist-democracy, there are no political parties with “set” ideologies. In an anarchist-democracy, individuals chosen by the people of their constituency meet with each other and rule the nation under the guidance of a convener, whose job is to ‘convene’.
- The above is a categorical operative, philosophically speaking. Like Kant’s. You might counter-argue that not all will do the same. People vote for caste, and religion and because the representative is your uncle. People vote because they want a nice dinner or a blanket. But we have to accept that politicians are not from Mars, or some other planet. We should not harangue our politicians for what they are. They are from amongst us. The binary between ‘us’ and ‘them’ needs to be more porous. The reason they are not ready to dissolve the layers between us and them is that when we become them, we would vouch for the same exclusivity they enjoy. They are from amongst us.
- Remember that, you have the ultimate power: More often than not, it is the election which decides the concentration of “power” in the “government.” So, if the voters are educated, and have done their study properly, they can come up with a government which benefits them.
- Bring them closer to yourself by decentralizing your vote.
Help Those Who Are Not As Privileged As You
- The fact that you are able to read this article means that you are privileged enough. There are many (most of the Indian citizens) who would not be able to read an article in English online, who do not even try. So in a very funny way, all those editorials or opinion pieces written in English in ‘reputed’ journals do not serve any real purpose except giving birth to a few more esoteric articles like them.
- Most of us read the television, which has a habit of churning out garbage. It is true for all countries. Do not think that India is the only country with mindless media houses. We do not open up an editorial and read ‘intellectual’ pieces, detailed analyses of facts and blank undeterred shams of truth as written by the intellectuals. We just sit back and feed on the fast-news like we consume fast food on our depressed days.
- If you are reading this article, and you have something to say about it, go to those who are not and provide them with different perspectives of things. It does not matter if you agree with me or not. Start with your family. Then go to the Rickshaw puller who carries you to your college, or the cab driver who really wants to talk ‘politics’ with you. Let us at least agree: privileged (like famous cricketers and movie stars) are least affected by who is in power. Money screens us from what is bad. It is underprivileged, like the farmers who are most affected by general elections.
- And yet, in a very ugly way, they are not affected at all. Every government ends up stepping over them and dance naked.
I will end abruptly, with the following question: What are the names of the participants who are going to stand for the coming general election from “your” constituency?