Why EVMs are so dicey

When a frustrated Congress was blaming its poll debacle on, among other things, the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in New Delhi, a man in his late seventies was preparing to set out on a walkathon from Kanyakumari for a cause that India’s oldest political party was the first to dump. Balvijay, who was secretary to the late Vinoba Bhave, has embarked on what is intended to be a repeat of Bhoodan, the famous feat in the Sarvodaya brand of socialism. The aim of Balvijay’s walkathon, though, is to create awareness about Gram Swaraj (village self-rule), the mother of all Gandhian socio-political thought. But then what has that to do with the Congress cribbing about EVMs? The party that ceaselessly swears by Gandhi did little to raise villagers to a level where they wouldn’t get overawed, if they at all have, by that little machine called the EVM.

Do they realise, after all, that during 45 years of their unitary rule, they chose to keep the rural masses, their mainstay in electoral politics, in a condition conducive to emotional exploitation in the name of the Nehru-Gandhis? Especially when villages should have been the party’s focus after Independence? Why crib now if villages also get swayed by influences other than the dynasty? In the era of marketing and communication through sophisticated gadgetry, influences are bound to work irrespective of whether they are credible or not. This election was a case in point. Let’s not join the chorus that this election was fought on developmental issues. If that were the case, our villages would have had a Hobson’s choice.

While everybody is going ga-ga over the BJP’s sophisticated electioneering, nobody asks if this helps the voters, especially in the villages, that preferred the BJP to Congress. Doesn’t it mean that if the Congress comes up with better election management techniques or tricks, the BJP would take the beating, and villages will remain just as miserable as they were?

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When villages participate in electing governments, it’s relevant to ask what they have got in return. While cities hog all the glitter and the better standards of living, villages remain at the fringes of economic activities, be it in the Congress rule earlier, or now under the BJP.

The Shouries and Jaitleys speak volumes about the fruits of economic liberalisation — information technology, cable TV, mobile phones, other gadgetry. But they seldom say how they propose to bridge the yawning urban-rural chasm. The media too asks them very little about this. It isn’t interested in inquiring into the progress of the rural roads scheme as much as it wants to know about the Golden Quadrilateral.

It’s time we gave the “back-to-villages” call. Let’s give them the power to decide their own priorities and provide them with all the support to lead them on the path of self-sufficiency.