Faith in Democracy
Since the general election results were announced, I've been witnessing people claiming that the results have "restored" their faith in democracy. I don’t know whether to laugh at the absurdity of their argument or be angry at the self-defeating attitude of my fellow citizens.
This narrative suggests that just because BJP didn’t get an absolute majority, democratic processes are working fine and the democratic idea is still alive within people. I find this narrative illogical at two levels. First, it defines the credibility of a democracy not by processes, but by outcomes. Second, even in outcomes, it demands a specific outcome, which is against one party.
Let’s assume for a moment that the BJP had won an absolute majority. Wouldn’t that have been the choice of a thriving democracy? One can only imagine how far these people would have gone in maligning the Indian electoral process. Later, if the Congress or any other party wins by full majority, will that not be the choice of a thriving democracy?
Since the BJP has gained power, people have somehow accepted the narrative that if the public accepts a leader or a party with a thumping majority, it is somehow a loss of democracy. The irony of this argument is evident in the fact that in the last 10 years, while BJP enjoyed a full majority at the center, it ended up losing several key states. It still doesn’t have a majority in the Rajya Sabha. The BJP benefits from this flawed logic and peddles narratives about completely eliminating the largest opposition party of the country (Congress Mukta Bharat), providing more fodder to those furthering this narrative.
I wonder why some people struggle to accept a democracy's choice of a majority government. In all senses, isn’t that a better choice? What else is the alternative? A coalition government with the constant risk of collapse? A government that cannot implement tough decisions because its coalition partners might withdraw support? One must think about who benefits from a weak coalition government.
The idea that we need one party to lose elections to trust our democratic processes is as absurd as the demands to debar democratic processes to have a one-party monopoly. The latter is biased in favor of a party, the former against one party, and neither is democratic.
I can understand when political parties do this. They have clear motives. What amazes me is when regular voters fall for such narratives and begin to peddle them.
The truth is that the election commission has executed an unparalleled mammoth process with minimal objections. Anyone who has managed anything in their lives knows that running processes serving merely thousands can encounter errors, even after decades of refinement and practice. This is a process that includes people in scores of crores. A more self-confident country would have celebrated this achievement extensively. But us being us, we can't even defend it properly—that too from our fellow countrymen.
Election after election, people end up proving all the ideologues and experts wrong. All analysis post-results remains an attempt to understand what happened, because the voter, regardless of any narrative being peddled, chooses what makes sense to them (sometimes even to their own detriment). Every state election narrates a different story. Different winners emerge, at times, against people’s expectations. And after 10 long years, even the general elections this time have narrated a story different from previous times. Even if someone wishes to rely on results to form an opinion, this dynamism of results should be enough proof for them, but sadly, it isn’t.
I hope the people who peddle such narratives find better sense and understand the damage they are doing for political gains. They are warping people's expectations of an election, questioning the efficacy of a process not by proof but by the results that originate, and more importantly, giving fodder to anti-India voices (which includes some of them) to further their narrative against a country that, despite its challenges, has maintained its right to choose a government—something our previous rulers and several other tall leaders of that time found impossible.
By all means, question EVMs and the electoral process, but do it based on evidence, not results. Don’t let your hatred for a political party turn against the processes that we should be taking pride in as citizens of a democratic nation. And understand that India doesn't rely on election results to restore its faith in democracy. It goes inside a secure booth and practices its rights knowing the power it has, and it always will, even stronger than it is today.
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