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Journalism of Courage
There are countries where elections are valued because they are rare,occurring once in more than one generation. Then there are states which value elections because their reason to be democracies is built on the periodic public exercise of universal adult suffrage. The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagams decision to boycott by-elections to five assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu next month therefore is an unwarranted rebuke to the democratic polity which allows the party,as it does all others,to exist and function. The AIADMK chief and former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa has accused the ruling DMK alliance of using money and muscle power,as well as its clout at the Centre,among other alleged electoral malpractices. But can this be reason enough for a boycott?
Elections in Indias neighbourhood,such as in Pakistan and Bangladesh,even when sanctioned after a spell of authoritarian government,are often flawed since those relinquishing power still decide who will contest and who will not. For India,however,its systematic elections to various levels of government Union,state,local distinguish its political identity and destiny from those of such neighbours. Perhaps Jayalalithaa hasnt considered the full import of her decision announced at Coonoor. If the boycott is prompted by a fear of electoral defeat,it should be pointed out that political parties derive their strength from the polling process,regardless of victory or defeat. And a boycott is a mark of ones lack of commitment to that process.
deposed a brutal dynastic dictatorship. But by the early 90s after a bloody civil war and economic collapse the Sandinistas had been voted out,only to return in a more democratic avatar in 2006. Even the second poorest country in the region,after Haiti,values its elections,changing those in power in its attempt to come out of chronic poverty.
