BackReal worries are lost in rhetoric before elections
It is not without reason that when the elections are announced, neutral people become terrified. They brace against the days that are bound to be filled with mud-slinging
PremiumThis incident occurred in March 1948. Then ruling Congress was set to split for the first time since Independence. Acharya Narendra Dev, a proponent of socialist ideology, and his associates were forming the Socialist Party. About this move, Narendra Dev said: “We have not taken this decision to separate from the Congress because of any animosity or proclivity for futile protest. We have no feelings of bitterness. Many of our allies and friends are members of Congress, and we will always have cordial relationships with them."
Govind Vallabh Pant, the then chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, was brought to tears by this decision, and Purushottam Das Tandon, another freedom fighter, said, “Politics is a weird thing. There is always the risk of a split...If the ideals of those splitting differ from those of the national and provincial governments, the separation is justifiable...[I]f they are doing so to gain power, we cannot condemn them. The desire to attain power is a normal urge."
Let us now travel to 1975. Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency that year, which became the cause for all of the setbacks the Congress faced in later years. But Indira’s problems had begun months before she imposed Emergency. On 5 December 1975, Jayaprakash Narayan wrote to Indira from Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai: “You have accused the Opposition of trying to lower the prestige and position of the country’s prime minister. But in reality, the boot is on the other leg. No one has done more to lower the position and prestige of that great office than yourself. Can you ever think of the prime minister of a democratic country who cannot even vote in his parliament because he has been found guilty of corrupt electoral practices?"
Needless to say, when Indira loosened her grip on the Emergency in 1977 and held national elections, people rejected her. JP was behind this mandate. He later went to visit Indira at her official residence. He was concerned about Indira and her family because he was a close friend of her father. “Indu, you are no longer in the post, so how will you manage household expenses?" JP asked her during this meeting. Indira said, “I will be able to live on the royalties from my father’s books." JP then assured her that the Janata Party government would not take any retaliatory action against her.
It is a separate matter that the father of Sampurna Kranti was rejected by his own disciples for his kind gesture. Indira was investigated by an inquiry commission led by Jayantilal Chhotalal Shah. She began referring to this commission as a means to harass her and played the victim card to great effect. The narrative was strengthened by her arrest and subsequent release.
We may see a similar sequence of events play out in the current Karnataka election, too. The blame game about the use and misuse of government agencies is rampant. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge recently compared the Prime Minister with a poisonous snake at one of his public rallies. Realising his error, he quickly apologized, but the prime minister and the BJP got a chance to react. The situation would have been avoided had Kharge’s son, Priyank, not used insulting language at the prime minister later. The BJP is also making it an issue. I’m not sure how much this incident will affect voters, but such misdeeds clearly pollute democracy. It seems we are doomed to suffer such pollution, election after election.
Such tendencies do not grace the political leadership of a country that claims to be the world’s oldest democracy. Elections come and go. Someone wins, and someone loses. The same thing will happen in Karnataka, but there is an adage that says, “No harm is more severe than that caused by a tongue." In this day of social media, where the least movement of the tongue first creates an uproar and then history, our politicians must consider that maintaining the democratic values that our forebears handed down to us is more important than victory and failure.
It is not without reason that when the elections are announced, neutral people become terrified. They brace against the days that are bound to be filled with mud-slinging. Why do those involved in this forget that we are the world’s largest and youngest democracy? According to one study, about 175 million young people will vote in the general elections of 2024. Aren’t we encouraging them to vote on emotive issues and not real ones?
This rising trend must be halted, but who will do so, when everyone commits the same sin?
Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief, Hindustan. Views are personal.
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