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Whether they like it or not those political parties who lost in the election now must live with the “Ram Raj” -- the idealized kingdom the so-called Hindu fundamentalists promised to create in the state -- rather than the socialist and secular heavens the other parties had pledged.
Many former “secular leaders” lost in this election. Among them is former Congress Party Chief Minister Dharam Singh, central government minister M.H. Ambareesh and even a self-proclaimed Dalit, or lower caste, leader M. P. Prakash. The Communist Party of India, Marxist failed to win even a single seat.
One should respect the verdict of the people, who have overwhelmingly chosen the fundamentalist Hindu rule of apparent inequality against the promised secular heaven. At the end of the day, the election is part of the democratic process the Indian Constitution guarantees.
So why did the people in Karnataka choose this so-called evil? The simple answer is, given a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea, in this round the people chose the abyss of the sea. Apparently the people thought that the BJP, whatever its ideology, was better than the dismal deceit the Congress and other parties practiced upon the ordinary people. It also proved that the people in Karnataka are not yet enslaved to one particular political ideology or party as in many other states, like West Bengal, for example.
No one in India who believes in secularism, pluralism or other progressive “isms” would for a moment believe that the BJP is a good choice. The party’s past record in the state of Gujarat – where it is accused of inciting anti-Muslim sentiments that led to riots and massacres – shows what the BJP is. In fact the election result in Karnataka should not be seen as one party's success or another’s failure. The result reflects the peoples’ limited choices and the way the parties manipulate these choices.
Karnataka is not a less “volatile” state than others. It has yet to end a fight with neighboring Tamilnad over sharing water from the Kaveri River. People have died fighting over this issue in both states -- the dispute is as old as independent India. The state also has a considerable Muslim population. In the 28 constituencies within Bangalore city, the Muslim population makes up 12-13 percent of the votes. Yet, the BJP won 16 seats within Bangalore city limits. Though some would say the recent reorganization of constituencies affected the Muslim vote, the results show that even the Muslims preferred the BJP.
Elections in India have been reduced to a process in which for one day – yes, for one single day – the ordinary citizen is encouraged to use his or her power and play a role in the democratic process. In what predates the election and what follows, in practice, the ordinary citizenry has no role. The political parties and their elected representatives decide what is beneficial to them and their party after the election. The term people's representative has become a misnomer in India. A better word would be political party representatives.
Soon after the election these party representatives share their power in a five-year-long scramble to amass illegal wealth and to feed their vote banks through unparliamentary means. In this process the value of an Indian citizen is reduced to the value of the mark he would make in the ballot box.
The electoral process and the choices people make are essential to democracy. What prompts the people to make their choices is as important as the electoral process itself.
In India, only once in five years do most people have a chance to meet their elected representatives. Only during the election time do these “people's representatives” devote time to visit the people who elected them. After the election, if an ordinary person needs to meet his or her representative in the legislature, he will have to pay bribes to the secretary of his elected representative.
Once elected the representatives spend much of their time and effort securing a “quota” of government appointments. It is commonplace for elected representatives to demand bribes from people seeking appointments in government services.
Yet another “piece of cake” the people's representatives are interested in are development programs. Constructing roads, building schools, digging canals – and any project that requires one brick to be laid on top of another or a shovel to be used – are in very high demand.
With 4,896 “people's representatives” and just about 593 districts in the country, each district is served by at least eight “people's representatives.” These elected representatives get about 20,000,000 rupees (US$500,000) per year to spend for the development of local areas. This means each district should see development worth eight times the above sum each year. This is in addition to other development work the government carries out within the country.
If this much money had been spent for the purposes it was allocated to, the Indian people would be living in heaven by now. But in reality, many people are haunted by misery, from a shortage of safe drinking water to acute starvation, even today. This suggests that the money allocated for the people is being spent elsewhere.
Year after year, when person after person irrespective of their party color does the same thing – spending government money for their personal purposes rather than for the people – the people are left with only one choice: elect a different representative from among those available.
Switching from one political party to another in India is like trying to switch a fracture from the left leg to the right leg. Both hurt. The election results in Karnataka favoring the BJP are just such a change, from left to right. For the ordinary person living with that fracture, it still hurts.
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(Bijo Francis is a human rights lawyer currently working with the Asian Legal Resource Center in Hong Kong. He is responsible for the South Asia desk at the center. Mr. Francis has practiced law for more than a decade and holds an advanced master's degree in human rights law.)
