For the vaguely interested, apolitical voter like me, the elections boil down to two questions: Should you vote? If so, for whom? The answer to the first question would seem self-evident. Yet roughly 50% of our electorate does not vote. My own answer to question No. 1 would be: Of course you should vote. Not for the sake of some exalted democratic ideal which, in the current India with its alphabet soup of parties, is getting to be more and more a figment of the feverish mind. Not for the sake of our nation, which will carry on regardless of whether we vote or not. You should vote for one simple reason: To choose your leaders and to nurture the hope that somehow you are contributing to your—and your nation’s—destiny.
Steel magnolia: J. Jayalalithaa can make a difference to the outcome of the 2009 general election. R. Senthil Kumar / PTI
The second question is more frustrating. Who do you vote for? For a party or a personality? When I was a little girl, my grandmother voted for the “hand” because her brother had told her to. Even if today’s voters are more savvy, deciding which of the coalitions of convenience are less repulsive is a tricky question, especially since some of these coalitions will coalesce post-election.
So what is the jaded voter to do? To throw up my hands and take a stance by not voting is tempting. Except that nobody will notice or care, advertorial overtures to “stand up and be counted” notwithstanding. Mobilizing the grass roots is a tempting prospect, but for that I need to know who I am voting for, a confusing exercise.
This election is different from previous ones in one significant way: the use of the Internet as a political tool. L.K. Advani has a website, as does Rahul Gandhi. Gandhi’s website even has a “chat” icon which doesn’t work. What our Indian politicians lack, however, is the mastery over technology that Barack Obama’s team showed throughout his campaign, both proactively and in terms of damage control. Even though sitting MP Milind Deora is mobilizing his constituents through SMS updates; even though Advani keeps a blog; even though I received an SMS from the Advani campaign stating that he was going to make every girl child a “lakhpati” (very rich); in the end, we IT-savvy voters are what is called a “niche segment” in India. We count, but not really. It is the rural voters, those teeming masses in the swing states, that have politicians up at night, and cause them to play chess games with regional parties such as the DMK or AIADMK. Because in the end, getting the vote, like predicting the box office, is not an exact science.
Also Read Shoba’s previous Lounge columns
How do we decide who we vote for? Sometimes, as with Obama, Kennedy, Omar Abdullah, and to a lesser extent, Nicolas Sarkozy, a good-looking leader can become a symbol for youthful energy and vibrant politics. Okay, I’ll say it: A sexy politician can make all the difference.