The enigma of India’s elections

Who challenge democracy usually resort not only to verbal, physical abuse but even use race, language, faith, caste.

Defending democracy in the Islamic republic is an onerous task. For those of you who have mercifully been spared of its trials, here are some highlights: it does not only involve being beaten black and blue by the policemen as a dictator tries to desperately cling to power through imposition of a second emergency and you simply come out to protest. It also includes enduring an unending stream of hate mail and phone calls by the trolling supporters of the same dictator ripping you to shreds as you sit criticising his policies after the restoration of democratic order while answering calls on live television. I swear, compared to Musharraf’s trolls, the breed honed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf looks like an army of angels in tutus.

And yet, they all pale in comparison with the lot that Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party have to contend with. While Mr Kejriwal has more than once been slapped in public, even briefly detained in Gujarat, his fellow party members have come under a number of attacks during their rallies. And as mystifying as it seems, the Indian election commission has not taken much notice of the blatant breach of protocol. Instead, the day he was slapped in a roadshow, which he had to later cancel, he was sent a notice for holding a meeting at Rajghat where he went after the incident ostensibly without permission. Apparently, those resorting to violence can get away with anything without permission, but not a democratic gathering. But more of that later.

I was arguing that fighting for democracy is an absolutely thankless and often, self-effacing job. Those who challenge democracy usually resort not only to verbal or physical abuse but even use matters of race, language, faith and caste to their advantage. The TTP’s attempts to declare democracy un-Islamic is only half of the story. If you want to hear the more secular version of this benighted interpretation, you only have to meet Musharraf’s supporters. Sadly, India’s case is no longer much different.

Recently, an Indian friend shared his concerns about what he called the ‘Afghanistanisation’ of Pakistan. While appreciating the merits of his argument, I told him not to worry too much about our situation because we were trying to fight such a negative influence to the best of our abilities. The biggest challenge for an Indian should be what I call the ‘Pakistanisation’ of India. The struggle between our democratic forces and the deep state are well known while the Indian democracy has steered clear of any dictatorial influences. But the account of the Indian establishment’s rising influence on foreign policy, produced in Sanjaya Baru’s book The Accidental Prime Minister, has given words to what we speculated throughout the United Progressive Alliance’s two terms. And yet, that is a big concern here because in our democratic circle, India is considered something of a role model.

Now back to the elections in India. It is a sad commentary on the quality of Indian elections that someone as divisive and with such huge image deficit as that of Narendra Modi can run for the office of prime minister. But Indian businesses, media and why, even its deep state, seem bending over backwards to identify him as the only plausible candidate. According to CMS Media Lab’s survey of media coverage given to all political parties during first 15 days of March, Modi was given 365 minutes in the prime time slots whereas Rahul Gandhi got only 72. Wait, it gets better. Kejriwal got more minutes than both — 429 minutes — but the treatment was markedly negative.

The decision to bar Azam Khan from contesting elections while Amit Shah is permitted must have come as a surprise to many. Both are polarising personalities and should have been kept away from the process. But the biggest shocker was the NDTV-Hansa Research’s opinion poll which showed the BJP-led NDA comfortably gaining 275 seats.

The question is: if there is no serious challenger, why is Mr Kejriwal’s party being so thoroughly harassed?

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th, 2014.

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