Mahesh Chander Sudan
We, the people of India, have recently witnessedlegislative election in five states indicating a clear shift of ideological acceptance in Punjab with absolute majority to AAP, comfortable retention of power in UP by BJP and a mixed demonstration of mandate in other three states. These elections were quite unique in size and shape as multiple restrictions have been imposed by Election Commission of India due to ongoing pandemic and its involved potentiality in spreading the disease. At the same time, it is essential in democracy to seek public mandate to form government on expiry of term as defined in the Constitution of India. Indian Republic inherently gains its strength to govern public resources out of public mandate obtained by political parties through electoral process so defined and structured constitutionally. Political parties through their manifestoes and public meetings convince general public to extend mandate in their favor based ontheir ideological strength. Ours is a multiparty system where political entities formed regionally and centrally are allowed to participate in elections held across the spectrum. Indian democracy also allows her citizens to contest election as Independent candidates. However, Indian National Congress, Bhartiya JanataParty andCommunists are the old political identities securing public mandate to govern Indian Union and its federations. Few recent additions in the political landscape of India, both regional and national, are actively participating with more apt and updated political ideologies to cater for social and economic equity.
Out of recent additions, there is a political outfit that evolved out of revolution against high level corruption noticed in the auction of government assets, natural resources and other government run schemes during congress party regime. The outfit that got formed by likeminded leaders who choose to participate actively in the politics to gain political power for dispensing honest and corruption free governance of public resources in the larger interest of the state. Arvind Kejriwal led the group of activists who formed AamAadmi Party and participated in the earliest election held for Legislative Assembly of Delhi in year 2013 and successfully formed government in coalition with Congress. This coalition could not survive long and government collapsed due to resignation of the Chief Minister. Thereafter, AamAadmi Party could prevail ideologically and secure mandate of Delhi voters successively for two tenures. It is observed that the party deals primarily with core areas affecting life of common people especially catering for their basic needs with zero tolerance for any corrupt practice. Clean and transparent governance dispensed in the state of national capital demands seamless contact with ground reality that ultimately develops a long-term relation based on appreciation and admiration and not merely on playing tricks of politics for power. This asset of the young political party of Indian political landscape is earning unconditional public support both in terms of active participation and large mandate to govern enhanced functioning of government with optimum utilization of resources for welfare of the state. Indian democracy is functioning as a welfare state but at the same time political parties sideline their primary duty once they gain power to rule which ultimately hurts the welfare of the state.
It is observed that Indian politics is passing through a transitional phase that allows formation of new political outfits adding colorful political landscape with multiple ideological options in place of few traditional ones that consequentially started erasing monopoly and offered choice to voters in using their mandate more effectively. As a result, it enables voters to discard non-performing political entities and cast their mandate in favour of adorable performers who assure optimum utilization of national resources without playing divisive tricks and allow masses to govern themselves through mass decisions undiscriminatingly. It is evident from the recently concluded elections campaign that political parties have started referring to development alongside social empowerment in place of politics played merely by dividing voters based on their caste and religion. This so called social engineering showed some relevance in the states like UP but unlike earlier days when preach and practice were wide apart. This altered scenario allowed parties like AAP to stretch its reach at national level and mould Indian politics towards common man rather than few affluent citizens of India. List of recently elected members of Legislative Assembly from Punjab with humble backgrounds speaks loud about the transitional phase of Indian politics. Though, it need consistent effort to overcome the inimical trend of political parties of accepting donations from unknown sources and raise spacious and luxurious party headquarters at the cost of healthy investment in high repute national institutes for education, research, hospitals, power generation and other public utilities.
In the given scenario, when there are new options for voters to elect representatives of their choice without any blockade of party politics restricted to few traditional entities, the voters duly empowered to cast their mandate in favour of performing political parties based on their track records showed acceptance of economic development and social empowerment as core agenda points for these elections. It is also evident that youths across the country are consciously involving themselves in politics to strengthen such political parties for better management of public resources to create employment opportunities, attain social equity, offer merit based avenues to all irrespective of caste, creed and sex as provided in the highest law of land. Widening gap between haves and have-nots (Rich and Poor) especially in the recent times is causing a serious social imbalance in the society that ultimately affects nation building. Allowing national wealth to accumulate with select few would certainly cause serious economic imbalance that would resultantly impair national growth.
It also noted that various surveys of public mood across these five states showed progressive growth of political parties other than two main stream national parties e.g. BJP and Congress as the voters displayed maturity and looked seriously towards performance as critical factor leaving aside social engineering based on caste. In nutshell, it emerged that voters have judiciously mandated political parties based on their track record of performance, cadre and ideological strength to dispense healthy governance of public resources with inclusivity and objectivity towards social justice and equity. Jai Hind, Jai Bharat.
(The author is Wg Cdr (Retd)
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