Political parties and their leaders may have engaged in ugly personality wars but what really captures people’s imagination are their policies and programmes and the leaders’ performance report. Leadership is about the capability to deliver
The Indian electorate is busy exercising its franchise to elect its representative to the 17th Lok Sabha. The battle is now in its last lap with the seventh phase of voting taking place on May 19. Political parties, all of whom contested the polls with different targets, are waiting with bated breath for May 23, the day when the counting of ballots will take place and the winner will be declared. Compared to past decades, this year the nature of electioneering reached its lowest ebb with bitter sloganeering ruling the roost and tempers running high. In the melee, the real issues, which should have attracted attention, were buried deep into the ground.
The general perception among the people is that political parties missed the bigger picture as they championed the cause of hurling allegations and counter-allegations on each other and tried to project a battle of personality cults. However, what really captures people’s imagination are the various policies and programmes of parties and the leaders’ performance report. Leadership is about the capability to deliver and has least to do with externalities.
Post the release of election manifestoes, most parties and their leaders forget about the promises made and harp on issues that are irrelevant in a manner that is best considered “undemocratic.” Party manifestoes are unlikely to be referred to in the future too. Nobody is worried about the agenda for governance.
One of the reasons for vitriolic electioneering is the fact that this election has been reduced as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The singular focus has been on one man. The election process itself witnessed a presidential style of campaign rather than being based on the Westminster style of parliamentary democracy, which believes in a multi-party system. In almost all Opposition rallies, the anti-Modi narrative and aggressive public theatrics against the Government were high on agenda. Throughout, the Congress made the Rafale deal its single-point agenda. It even declared the Prime Minister a chor (thief). That actually ended up lionising Modi and helped him claim victimhood. So though he failed to perform in governance, he could make it look like he was up against obstacles set up by the anti-establishment brigade and was prevented from doing so.
The BJP, too, did not lag behind. The Prime Minister lost not a single opportunity to dig into the Congress’ past follies, raising serious allegations of corruption against it. Besides, it has also been mocking the mahagathbandhan with names like ‘Maha Thug Bandhan’ and ‘Maha Milawat.’
This writer has been closely monitoring the pulse of the people and it can be said that the numerous campaigns by various political parties have not been in good taste as none moved back from practising divisive political agenda.
The Prime Minister has succeeded in convincing the people about his strong Government and taking action against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. However, it remains a million dollar question if he has been able to breach the regional and caste factors, especially in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, and align them to a more nationalistic line of thinking.
The second reason why the ruling party has an edge is the fact that only the NDA is contesting in all seats. None of the constituents of the mahagathbandhan or the Congress is doing so. However, the prevailing mood of the people is for a responsive, responsible, empathetic and proactive government which thinks about its youth, farmers, the downtrodden, environment, clean and safer industrialisation and a peaceful law and order situation. Whatever be the poll results, the country must brace up for effective governance for the next five years.
This author would like to flag a few subjects for the new government. The first subject is to factor the environmental concerns as a core segment of our developmental policies. The changing dimensions of climate change impacts being faced call for a thorough restructuring of our planning process. India has pledged to ensure Millennium Development Goals and the foremost effort, therefore, is to reduce poverty and ensure ecological security.
This emphasis on environment, however, does not mean that the development process should be sacrificed. It means striking a balance, going for innovative ideas and bringing superior technology. In this regard, though the country is progressing well in meeting the Paris commitment on climate change, we still need a lot of synergy and coherence in our developmental activities.
We need to ensure development of tribal areas on priority along with 170,000 villages situated in and around 32 million hectares of forests. The management of forests should focus on water conservation to recharge our aquifers, ensure water flow in our rain fed rivers and promote biodiversity both in forests and agriculture fields.
The second issue relates to enhancing the agriculture productivity and diversifying the income of farmers from animal husbandry and other primary sectors resources. The disaster management programmes must have a portfolio for natural resources management.
The new government must also decentralise decision-making, cut red tapism in governance, bring far-reaching changes in the education sector and make health affordable to all. The social sector may not seem a priority worth staking all resources but it is this segment which translates into a happy electorate. As far as national security is concerned, our defence processes need to be transparent and the Kashmir issue dealt with firmly but sensitively. Till we confront issues that we do not prefer talking about and consign them to vision papers, India will always be a languishing than a winning prospect.
(The writer is a retired civil servant)
