The Indian parliamentary elections are often dubbed as the festival of democracy or even a carnival of democracy. And, why not?
Within the serious process of selecting a new government, there’s entertainment, there’s drama, there’s sound, there’s music and of course, the suspense of who will win, with the smaller subplots of who is contesting in which constituency and which party is dropping which sitting MP, keeping you guessing.
India is the world’s largest democracy, with 97 crore eligible voters, a figure that exceeds the population of the European Union and the US.
The elections, this year, are taking place in seven phases, spread over 44 days and votes will be cast in over 1 million polling stations and 5.5 million electronic voting machines (EVMs).
The first phase was held on April 19, 2024 and the last will be on June 1, 2024, with the votes being counted on June 4, 2024.
Within the serious process of selecting a new government, there’s entertainment, there’s drama, there’s sound, there’s music and of course, the suspense of who will win.
It’s been politics and elections on all news media since the elections were announced in mid-March, and the international media has sent its top correspondents to cover the polls in India.
Given these statistics, it is not at all a surprise that on each of the three polling days that have ended, the Google doodle had an inked finger sticking out, the symbol of a vote cast.
Yet, the elections are a festival in more ways than one. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has gone out of the way to make voting as festive as it could get.
There were pink booths operated totally by women and decorated in pink, green booths that promoted the environment and had environment-friendly decor, saplings planted to mark voting day, refreshments for the voters because of the heat, air coolers installed to keep the electors cool and gifts to first-time voters.
The election officials went beyond and stocked fizzy drinks at the booths, which gave rise to questions of how the plastic generated by the waste would be managed.
One would gladly have accepted a glass of drinking water after having trudged to the polling booth in the hot sun or stood in the queue for a while.
But, the election officials went beyond and stocked fizzy drinks at the booths, which gave rise to questions of how the plastic generated by the waste would be managed.
We don’t know that yet and, hence the question: was it really necessary to offer sweetened drinks to the voters? Was it some sort of incentive to vote? For, if the drink was merely to quench one’s thirst, as India is in the midst of a rather torrid summer, a glass of water would be just right, and oh so refreshing.
Cut back to the times when those of us who have now voted for the past three decades and more, and even those who have voted since the first election in Goa in 1963. Many will recall how they voted in those times, where even water was not offered.
As voters queueing up for the first time, was there any incentive other than the fact that we were getting the opportunity to participate in the democratic process of electing a government?
Or, doing our duty as citizens of this great democratic nation? That was reward enough, and that was what we got and never sought anything beyond that.
As voters queueing up for the first time, was there any incentive other than the fact that we were getting the opportunity to participate in the democratic process of electing a government?
Surprise, the first-time voters were given gifts at some polling booths, and check this out, at one particular polling booth on a riverine island of Goa, the first-time voters, as reported in a national newspaper, were each given a crab to take back home.
Yes crab, you read it right. Perhaps, it was caught from the river on which the island sits. Interesting, but who ever thought of a crab as a, should we call it a return gift, for participating in the festival of democracy?
With air coolers, sweetened fizzy drinks, crabs and who knows what else, the Goan voter appeared to be a pampered lot by the Election Commission of India (ECI), and makes you wonder whether the voter was also pampered similarly, or in some other way, by the political parties contesting the election.
That’s a thought that pops up and floats in the mind.
And then, when I glance at my inked finger, I am just glad that I voted, not for the fizzy drink or the crab -- as I was offered neither -- but, I did it to elect a representative to the Lok Sabha, just as I have done at every election since the day I attained the age for voting, because it is my right to vote and I believe that every vote counts.