Yeah, so finally Elections 2011 have drawn to quite an exciting end for voters with the expected favourites taking away all the glory, or in unparliamentary, lesser civilised language, ‘raping’ the incumbent governments. All the states which went to the polls got very satisfactory results, but the two that have stood out this time are West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.
In my earlier post on Female Chauvinism, I had suggested that female power was sweeping through 21st Century India. Election results this time around reaffirm that belief – women are growing stronger across the country. And like one tweet said "From sweeping floors, to sweeping polls, women have come a long way in India". However, though one may be tempted to see this as a very strong statement made by women in a male dominated society, its not as much about emancipation of women, as it is about the brilliance of an electoral victory for parties that have been patiently awaiting their moment of glory.
Mamata Bannerjee is very masala-esque filmi leader, one any moviemaker or biographer would love. She has done a variety of things, of which catching hold of the collar of her colleagues and throwing them out of parliament is certainly not the most daring. She is a great orator and a lot of her energy flows onto you when you listen to her (even when she speaks in Bengali, a language which is certainly not one that I can claim to follow even to the remotest extent). She may not be the most hygienic looking people around, neither is she the most parliamentary parliamentarian. She is petty and for all I can say, very irritating and annoying, smiles sparingly like its gold, but I have come to respect her a lot, if not like her, over the past few years.
Now just think. A party has been winning every election the last seven times. The state belongs to them with all its machinery. The bureaucracy is rooted in the party and is family to the party. And against such a party, you decide to fight. They threaten you, you dont budge. They hit you, beat you up, you still fight. They try to kill you, you still wont relent. Mighty Woman, you rock !! You deserve greatness. And what's even more remarkable is that Mamata Banerjee beat the Left in being Left. In simpler terms, she accused a Socialist government of trying to be capitalist and imperialistic and showed them their way out ! Now, that is truly
outstanding politics.
Jayalalithaa, whom everyone now calls Amma (even Karunanidhi probably, how ironical!!), didnt have to do anything that remarkable or outstanding. She's been in power before, twice in fact and has achieved everything that a political leader would aspire to in their careers even getting to arrest her enemy no.1. She just had to ride on the anti-incumbency wave (the phenomenon that makes people less inclined towards the present government and want a change for no specific reason) and do the right things at the right time to achieve a victory which isn't new to her or to Tamil Nadu. But this victory is significant nevertheless.
Amma winning the elections, or rather steamrolling the DMK, is very significant because this is widely being seen as the answer to Karuna's running the state like it was family property, putting his family in charge of running affairs while peacefully enjoying a luxurious life looting the common man. Now that is something which is not acceptable to the people. Not that Amma is any less corrupt. She has been involved directly in corruption cases unlike Karunanidhi, who at least leaves this to lesser mortals in his home. So contrary to what most analysts say, I do not believe that corruption was the factor for the voter. No voter will vote for Amma over Karuna on the basis of just corruption. No.
So its not anti-incumbency, not corruption, what then worked in Amma's favour ? The larger perspective here is Amma has always been a leader of the masses. Her previous term did see excellent performance by her. The energy situation in the state improved, she revamped the education system to a certain extent, she came down hard on hooliganism and rowdism, improved the condition of the women, etc. So if she has actually won because of her history of Governance this time, why did she lose last time around ? Her losses in the previous election can to a great extent be attributed to the DMK's money power, if the maid servant at my house is to be believed. A very intriguing allegation, but then there is a lot of substance in it. DMK, with power at the centre, did have a lot of cash to give away. That was around the time when buying voters first began showing an ugly face and the Election Commission was not very strong on that last time. So the voters swung to the money and DMK returned to power. This time however, the electorate has matured. They seemed to have taken the money, but voted for Amma.
The whole concept that Amma won on her performance history may be wrong. The only way to verify this theory is the next election. If DMK comes back next time, it will firmly be established that the Tamil Nadu voter prefers a different government each time, which will be boring cos it will become predictable after that. Once again, that will depend on Amma's policies and her behaviour this time. She will have to work hard to keep the voters' trust in her alive until next time around, and most people believe she can and she will. Until then however, it will be interesting to see how she hounds on each of her opponents. It will also be interesting to see, as has been widely observed, what will happen to Vadivelu who has managed to more than just rub the ADMK alliance on the wrong side.
On a positive note, with consistent polling rates of over 80% this time, election fans will be happy at how things have gone this time. Our electorate is maturing, our people are beginning to think before they vote, and they are beginning to vote in large numbers. However Ravi Shastri-ly this may sound, At the end of the day, it is Democracy that has won.
