In the shadow of violence

Though the Election Commission’s statistics on the incidents of violence in the general elections to the 12th Lok Sabha indicate that the number of violent incidents are on the low side, the grim reality lies in the number of repolls that have been ordered following large-scale booth-capturing and poll-rigging.

“The highest turnout and the lowest violence”, Chief Election Commissioner M.S. Gill said aftersigning the final list of 539 elected MPs. Except that repoll figures have almost doubled since the last general elections in 1996.

From 2,826 repolls ordered in 1996 to the 4,750 ordered this time round, repolling reflect the criminalisation of the Indian polity. In Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, parts of Andhra Pradesh, and some of the North-eastern States, the announcement of elections and the ensuing poll campaign have reduced these States to virtual theatres of war. In major battlefields like Madhepura, where the Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav was pitted against Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav, repolls had to be ordered in over 300 polling stations.

In Patna, polling was declared null and void and repolling ordered in the entire constituency where the fight is between two Bihar stalwarts, Ram Kripal Yadav of the RJD and C.P. Thakur of the BJP.

According to the Commission’s own figures, from 213 deaths in the 1996 polls, the number of election-related deaths has come down to 65 in the 1998elections. This figure does not include the 80-odd victims of the Coimbatore and Mumbai blasts which are being viewed separately as terrorist-incited violence.

In Bihar alone, the number of deaths have declined from 120 to 26 killed during the election days, whereas in Uttar Pradesh, poll-related killings fell sharply from 98 deaths in 1996 to an incredible single death this time.

The body-count of the dead may have declined, but the atmosphere in which polls are conducted, the sheer intimidation of voters by gun-toting musclemen, the take-over of entire polling stations by the armed senas of criminal politicians or politicised criminals, has reduced the electoral battle to a contest where might becomes right.

The Election Commission’s efforts to post additional observers or to beef up deployment of security forces, come to nought in the face of the AK-47-equipped private armies of the contesting candidates.

In such an atmosphere, the argument that adequate numbers of security forces had not beendeployed or citing the unpreparedness of the civil administration is futile. Even doubling the number of para-military personnel would not have proved a deterrent.

When legislators themselves indulge in brickbatting, hurling microphones, chairs and every moveable object at each other within the august precincts of the State Assembly as witnessed in the Uttar Pradesh legislature, it is impossible to expect their supporters and partymen to be circumspect in the streets.

On the positive side, the EC’s tightening of the criteria for contesting elections has resulted in a sharp decline in the number of Independent candidates.

The 12th general election has seen a marginal increase in the voter turnout with the number of voters going up from 57.9 per cent to 62 per cent.

With the hike in the security deposit and the increase in the number of proposers and seconders, anyone wanting to contest the polls for a lark had to do a rethink.

For the non-serious candidates, the bane of the political parties, the ECand the voters alike, mustering up the Rs 15,000 security deposit and the mandatory number of proposers and seconders was a sufficient enough hurdle. Significantly, the number of Independent candidates fell from 10,635 in the 1996 polls to 1,915 in 1998.

The number of women candidates fell sharply too, from 599 in the last polls to 267, or less than half in the 1998 elections.

The decline in candidates was not confined to Independent candidates alone. It was reflected in the total number of candidates as well with their numbers decreasing from 13,952 in 1996 to 4,750 this year.

There is as yet no evidence to show that the newly-introduced criminal background affidavit clause had any bearing on the fall in the number of contestants. Under a new set of criteria, candidates have to declare under Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, whether they have been convicted of any crime.

The list of a large number of candidates with criminal records which was published in the Press, with a fairrepresentation of them in every political party, is proof enough that the affidavit criterion was not seen as a handicap by crime-record -tainted politicians. Nor was having a criminal past or being a history-sheeter seen as a disqualifier, since political parties across the board went ahead and sponsored candidates with questionable backgrounds.

Today, it has become almost impossible to envision elections without violence. And the danger really lies in the threat this pernicious trend poses to the democratic process and ultimately to the very institution of democracy in the country.