The Hindu : Front Page : Alternatives to politics vs alternative politics

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Monday, May 04, 2009
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Alternatives to politics vs alternative politics

Election 2009 is a small but vital step towards turning our disenchantment with politicians into forging an alternative kind of politics, writes Yogendra Yadav.

Here is a paradox about political participation in this election. On the one hand, the evidence on voter turnout suggests a mild decline in popular participation. The final data for the first phase indicates a one percentage point drop and the second phase a two percentage point drop compared to figures in the same areas for 2004. On the other hand, the final list of candidates released by the Election Commission shows a sharp jump compared to the previous elections. After the EC introduced a vast range of measures to curb ‘non-serious’ candidates in 1997, the average number of candidates per constituency fell to a little less than nine in 1998 and 1999 and 10 in 2004. This time, the average number of candidates per constituency has risen sharply to a little over 14.

What accounts for the decline and rise in these two forms of political participation? We might think of specific but separate reasons to explain them. Decline in turnout could be the result of the scorching heat, a dull national-level campaign, and the increasingly strict requirements for voter identification. The rise in the number of candidates could be a function of a lower threshold of victory in multi-cornered contests. The success of parties such as the Pattali Makkal Katchi has spawned many a hopeful. Also, as political parties become closed to new entrants and lack democratic avenues of upward mobility, the only way to register presence within a political party is to go out and contest the election as an Independent. These factors contribute to the increase in candidates as well as the rise in ‘non-serious’ ones.

There is another way of resolving this paradox. Both sides of it can be interpreted as different responses to the lack of political choices offered in this election. Although the party system has opened up in the last two decades, there has also been a convergence among political parties. Voters get to choose from more of the same. The same phenomenon appears to have contributed at least partly to the rise in the number of candidates. Activist citizens and organisations respond to the lack of choice by trying to forge alternatives. Some people decide to stand for elections and some organisations put up candidates. Viewed in this light, the current election represents an attempt to forge an alternative to mainstream politics. Never before has an election witnessed so many attempts by individuals, movements and organisations outside the mainstream to intervene in the political process. Arguably, this development, more than the messy outcome of this increasingly close electoral race, holds greater relevance for the future of Indian politics.

The relevance of this seems to have escaped the media’s attention. Yes, the media — print, radio, TV and internet — did highlight many high-profile voter awareness campaigns. Yes, celebrity candidates such as Mallika Sarabhai, Captain G. R. Gopinath and Meera Sanyal received considerable media space. The media was also generous in highlighting how some of the film stars, models and role models took voting very seriously. For once, voting was made to appear ‘cool.’

But such things were the least significant aspect of the new phenomenon of citizen involvement in electoral politics. The attention given to the politics of anti-politics, in line with the anti-politician protests in Mumbai after 26/11, led to high expectations and an inevitable disappointment once the turnout figures were known. This is a reminder of a basic lesson in politics: there are no short-cuts to building an alternative politics. Those who engage in politician bashing for five years cannot expect their all-too brief campaigns to yield an involved and committed citizenry. The only route is to take politics seriously and painstakingly build political organisations. For all their faults, this is what mainstream political parties do, or at least did to begin with.

What the media missed completely were those initiatives that recognised the nature of this challenge. This election witnessed at least two kinds of organised and serious attempts at strengthening alternative politics. The first relates to attempts to influence the agenda of political contestation and the level of citizens’ involvement by organisations that did not contest elections. Such attempts could be called non-party political initiatives. These include several independent initiatives to influence the party agenda and to develop people’s manifestos. Besides these, the National Election Watch campaign has analysed all the affidavits filed by candidates and alerted us to the presence of moneybags and those with criminal records. Conducted by the Association for Democratic Reforms, this campaign is an example of how a small group of dedicated citizens can make a difference to the quality of democracy. Janagraha’s One Billion Votes campaign was an example of how urban middle class-centred initiatives can play a valuable role, if sustained and serious. The National Alliance for Peoples Movements and many other groups came together in an unusual campaign ‘Chunav par Nazar’, that travelled across the country, highlighting the real issues of ordinary people. Supported by many leading intellectuals and activists, this self-avowedly political campaign supported and opposed a few candidates.

Secondly, there were many organisations that took up the difficult task of making a direct intervention, by putting up candidates. The boldest and best known of these initiatives was that of the Lok Satta party in Andhra Pradesh. Led by former bureaucrat Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan, the energy, the organisational seriousness and public transparency of this party has set an example for future attempts at alternative politics.

Some other attempts did not figure at all in the national and regional media as they were more localised and did not have a media-savvy middle class face. Karnataka Sarvodaya, an extraordinary political party that has emerged from Dalit and farmers’ movements, put up four candidates in Karnataka. The Samajwadi Jan Parishad, a political formation born from the grassroots, fielded seven candidates in Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal. The performance of its candidate in Bargarh Assembly constituency in Orissa merits close attention. The Tamil Nadu Women’s Front and the Jharkhand Ulgoolan Party have put up two candidates each. Several ‘lok ummeedvar’ (peoples’ candidates) have been fielded by groups in U.P. and M.P. Many of these groups have come together under a national umbrella called the Lok Rajniti Manch.

These parties and candidates may not appear ‘successful’ when votes are counted on May 16. Their success or failure should be measured by the extent to which they succeed in responding to the paradox of political participation.

The growing lack of political choices cannot be countered by celebrity candidates or high-profile media or NGO campaigns. Attempts to look in this direction can only deepen a sense of frustration and helplessness. The real challenge is to turn disenchantment with politics and politicians into a creative force for an alternative kind of politics. Election 2009 is a small but vital step in that direction.

[Yogendra Yadav is a Senior Fellow at CSDS and is associated with the Lok Rajniti Manch and the Samajwadi Jan Parishad mentioned in this article]

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