Such a big yawn

While party spokesmen made wild claims about 8220;waves8221; in favour of their respective outfits, there certainly was precious little great evidence of an overly exuberant electorate or even a passing frisson out there.

Of course, it is early days yet. Some of the truly gargantuan encounters lie ahead, with people in states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar yet to exercise their mandate. Yet the impulse that brought people intheir hundreds of thousands to vote out the Congress and its emergency raj in 1977 or vote in the Congress in 1984 after the Indira Gandhi assassination was just not in evidence, at least not in the first phase of a poll that will unfold in five stages over the next month. Indeed, this unprecedented staggering of poll dates over a whole month seems to have robbed the process of its immediacy and vibrancy.

The Election Commission justified this arduous and unwieldy itinerary on the grounds that providing an adequate number of security personnel in 543 constituencies necessitated such an arrangement. But it should have thought through the entire process a little more carefully and evolved a more compact and voter-friendly schedule.

An even more important factor than this unduly extended electoral process is the singular lack of issues in these elections. While the arena was abuzz with hate words of every description, the big ideas were missing. Kargil was of course top-of-the-mind fare for both the BJP andthe Congress, with each trying to milk it for what it was worth.

Whether it will translate into an emotive electoral issue cutting across the board, like corruption did in 1989 or onion prices during the assembly elections last November, is still an open question. Ditto, the swadeshi versus videshi slugfest, although the battle between the beti and the bahu did stir the air in once-sleepy Bellary, which was one of the few pockets to report an over 70 percent turnout on Sunday. But it is popular cynicism that has acted as the greatest dampener of them all.

People have lost confidence in the integrity of their elected representatives and their capacity to change their lives. The poor are fed up with empty promises that are being flung at them with greater frequency than ever before. Minorities are disgusted at being used by various political forces as little more than votebanks and then being subjected to the same indignities that they have experienced over the decades. There is a warning then in voterindifference and politicians will ignore it only at their peril.