Opinion Express View on 2024 general elections: Lok in Lok Sabha
Close to a billion voters, a million moving parts -- no one narrative explains 2024. That’s the sobering reminder as the polls begin
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The incredible Indian election has begun. And no amount of cynicism or world-weariness, laments about the sharpening polarisation in general or the supposed predictability of this contest in particular, can take away from the excitement of the mammoth and magnificent exercise. In seven phases, from April 19 to June 1, close to a billion voters will be addressed and wooed by parties and candidates and they will have the opportunity to express themselves as only voters in democracies can — which is also why the proposed one-nation-one-election is a constricting idea.
To be sure, there is a danger in overly romanticising the tryst with the EVM, especially in a polity with weakly institutionalised accountability, and the special polling stations to be set up in Manipur’s relief camps will present a sobering image — free and fair elections are only one part of the democratic promise, not the whole of it. It is also true that the polarisation is set to sharpen as the battle lines are more tightly drawn. But this is also the first election after, on the Supreme Court’s prodding, data on electoral bonds has been placed in the public domain. There is room for more disclosures and the dots will continue to be connected in days to come. But there could not be better news for the voter’s right to know.
The June 4 outcome will be revelatory for the obvious and not-so-obvious reasons. It will decide who forms the new government at the Centre, whether Brand Narendra Modi will win the BJP a third successive term and whether, and to what extent, the Rahul Gandhi-led Congress, the Congress-led Opposition or any other Opposition formulation, is able to rise to its challenge. But the numbers on the scoreboard can also be decoded for what they say about some of the larger forces that are reshaping the polity. One in five voters is under the age of 30, women voters outnumber men voters in 12 states — these are not just statements of fact, but critical signposts of change.
The polity is shifting and moving beneath the feet of political parties and they will need agility and balance to keep step with it. Women may not be a self-conscious or self-assured voting bloc, and they may be as divided as men by caste, class, religion and region. But it is possible that the political agenda of the future will be compelled to pay more than lip service to their concerns, which are the same as, but also different from, that of the men. The young could also be remaking the politics of this country, and parties can ill afford to ignore their sensitivities and needs — education and jobs and freedom and access to opportunity — while taking into account that the young citizen is, more and more, a netizen.
But above all, the election is a reminder of the inadequacy of any one narrative, including the one of polarisation, as an explanation of the electoral process or the outcome. In a country so large and diverse, there are just too many moving parts, and cross-cutting cleavages. Each vote will be counted — and will count.
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