Chapter ~0 N C L US 1.0 N

Transcription

1 242 Chapter VI ~0 N C L US 1.0 N In order to draw the conclusion about the electoral participation in India or 1971 and 1977 elections it is found necessary to study the role of different factors influencing it. Each parliamentary election has revealed certain trends inherent in the political, social and cultural life of the people in a country. In parliamentary democraeies the election results, at times, very clearly reflected the pub lie opinion. Electoral participation being an essential part of democracy, has so far ensured the smooth functioning of a democratic political set up. The Indian constitution provides for a parliament and ~ elaboratesthe electoral process. The constitution also vests in an Election Co:mmi ssion the superintendence, direction and control of elections. The Commission assures free and fair election but still certain corrupt practices continue. There are eleetoral malpractices, impersonates and booth capturing. This affects the electoral process and electoral participation. On finding it can be said India's present electoral system is not yet a perfect representative system. Here a party getting far less than 50 per cent votes can win and form the Governnent.

2 243 There are many factors such as religion, caste, language, money etc. which adversely affect the electoral process and participation. Other factors include ideology and organisational strength etc. The ideologies and policies of different political parties play a vital role in determining the electoral participation. In Indian context, the nationally accepted policies of nonalignment, peace and peaceful co-existence have remained the core of the ideologies of na:tiona1 parties like the Congress. Though there are fundamental ideological differences in the policies and programme of parties, all parties subscribe, to democracy, socialism, secularism and non-alignnent. Among the national parties, the Indian National Congress dominates the Indian election, because it had its roots in the national movement, and it encompasses the vast masses of different classes, which include the business class. The.Tana Sangh, quite a powerful party of the Right before 1977, had its roots in the urban middle class people, inspired by revivalism, and the petty business class. The left parties, the CPI and the CPI(M) have the working class peasantry and landless labourers, as their mass following. But as it is evident, Indian electorates including the Muslims, HariJan and other minorities are mostly incllded towards the Congress.

3 But sometimes, the alignment of political forces change and accordingly changes the trend or voting. ' Electorates vote for a party not only after carefully judging the performance of that party but they also see which forces that party is aligned to. The 1971 and 1977 Lok Sabha elections both underline the role of the above factor. In 1971 Lok Sabha election the electorates judged the newly formed Congress (R) which had split away from the old guards of syndicate, from the viewpoint of its performance in the parliament and elsewhere (they were certainly impressed by the new radical line putforward by Mrs.Gandbi). But at the same time they also saw the fact that the elections we~ being held in the background of a polarisation of political parties and forces, in which the Congress led by Mrs.Gamhi was against the conservative, feudal and obscurantist :forces and parties represented by the Swatantra and the Congress(O). However,in 1977 the picture was different. It was unimaginable for one to think in the early post-1971 election days that the same right wing parties will sweep the polls in But it was again the performance of Congress Party, the betrayal of the verdict given to the electorates in 1971 elections, that made the electorates to go for a negative polling in favour of the Janata Party. The Congress Party and its allies lost miserably. Here

4 243 the electoral participation was clearly reflective of public opinion. This is inspi te of the.fact that voti~ is generally influenced by many other. subjective factors. But apart from the subjective factors like family, caste, religion and regional considerations, the participation of voters is subjected to socio-economic problems, role of pojitical parties, the id~ological propaganda, the personal merits of the candidates etc. But above all it is the class factor which, cutting across the caste, religion and other factors, is becoming determinant. A party is generally the bearer of this or that class and when it is generally the bearer of this or that class and when it wins or loses, it certainly amounts to the victory or defeat o:f this or that class and ideology. For instance, the Congress Party was ruling the country till 1977 It had been the party Vlhich represented the interests of those national classes who fought against the yoke of British Imperialism. These classes included the Indian industrialist class, rich peasants, petty capitalists etc. with a vast mass following. Majority of the masses had always been w1 tb the Congress Party as they cons ide red 1 t the only party of Nehru and Gandhi, a party which fought for freedom, a party which fought, which had a radical progra~e of land reforms, industrialization

5 248 and anti-imperialism. Thus they have been voting for it. In 1971 election, after the radical section of the Congress split away from the old bossess of Congress and people voted the section called Congress(R) under the leadership of Mrs. Indira Gandhi. Tae Congress emerged victorious with thumping majority in 1971 elections am formed the Government at the Centre. People voted Congress(R) to power because they had high hopes about its progra~e and ideology, which was quite radical in comparison with the old guard party, the Congress(O). This was in spite of the fact that all the top leaders of the party were in the Congress (0). The progranme, ideology and performances played a more important role than any other factor. Had Mrs.Gandhi not nationalised the banks, had she not gone for eniing the privy purses, had she not adopted a radical agricultural and industrial policy, she could not have won with such a _thumping majority and reduced the Congresa(O) to a small minority. The defeat of the old guards also bring to fore the rejection of old guards, also brings to fore the rejection of old and obscurintist ideas by the masses, as the old guards represented the conservative section of the Congress. The 1971 election results can be described as a favouring to those classes which were to be benefited by

6 ~ 247 \ the measures Mrs.Gandhi was adopting. These were the classes of Indian indigenous capitalists, peasants etc. They were pinning their hopes on the new governnent formed after the elections. so, it was not that "in the voting behaviour was influenced by the extraordinary Indian war success in Bangladesh" and similar other factors only, as some political analysts try to prove. T:Ws the 1971 election results were clearly a mandate for change. A change which was to be brought about by the Congress(R). But the change could never take place, as the Government with all its radical, progressive and so called leftist slogans could not come up to the mark. Not only that it could not jmplement the land reforms and did nothing to uplift the people above the poverty line, it also failed to guarantee the minimum democratic rights to people. on the contrary, it started concentrating more and more powers. The government had become more and more centralised Centrally controlled paramilitary and police forces were playing an increasingly important role. State governments were almost controlled by the Prime Minister. When people started reacting, it nakedly took anti-people measures culminating in the declaration of emergency.

7 24o The Energency period was the darkest in the entire history of Independent India. Almost all the important opposition leaders were failed, inhuman campaign for forced sterilisation was launched and people were not allowed to express bow they felt. When Mrs.Gandhi declared 1977 elections, it was clear that the Congress was going to lose and it was defeated badly. Certain obvious factors played their role in this election. And no "charisma" of Mrs.Gandhi worked, no personality factor helped. Moreover, the psychological factor played its role, but in favour of the Opposition. But these were not so important reasons behind the defeat or the Congress. The main reason was the Energency and its excesses. The Opposition made Emergency a main issue in the elections. The question whether the emergency was justified was raised. The use or emergency powers for detaining in jail a large number of political opponents without trial) the establidlaent of tight censorship over the press, the use of goverrrnental mass media for putting out only the official version of events and happenings which were cons i4ered fit for the public infonnation become important issues in the election propaganda of opposition parties.

8 248 Only in South India, the Congress could stand against the Janata tide, and the reason behind it was that in the southern states the emergency rule was not so severe. The five point programme of Sanjay Gandhi which included the forced sterilisation, was not implemented as crudely as in the northern states. That is why Congress performame was fer better in. south. It did not lose its strongmlds in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Whereas in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana and PunJab it suffered an unprecedented set back. These were the states where the suppression of the people had crossed the limits during the emergency. It is to be noted that the north-south division was conspicuous in 1977 Lok Sabha election that it even dominated and cut across the rural-urban division. The Janata Party swept the poll in the entire north and did equally in the rural and urban constituencies of the northern states. Evidently, as far as the Janata P&rty was concerned, there was the absence of a sharp division between rural and urban Indian voters. Fbr instance, Janata Party, on the one hand won the urban constitutencies of Varanasi, Lucknow, Allahabad, A.gra, Meerut and on the other side it did very well 1n the rural constitutencies of PunJab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

9 :..-- o r;.j::f Similarly, the Congress Party and its allies did equally well in the South India's rural and urban constituencies. In Andhra Pradesh, where it won 41 out of 42 seats, it won both the seats or Hyderabad. In Karnataka, excepting one urban seat of Bangalore, it wn in the rest of rural constituencies. lie-.ertheless, a ccuparatioye view of the perfotmances of the Janata and Q)ngress in II 11& s largest cities in 1971 and 1977 election shows a slightly different picture. Janata Party proved to be more effective in urban constituencies as compared to the Congress and also to the performance of its own components in 1971 election. It is evident that the Congress defeat in 1977 election was not only due to betrayal of the confidence of the masses but also the unity in the opposition. The Congress became authoritative by concentrating all the powers in its bands. For this, it used the weapon of :&nergency. The Congress did not respect democratic traditions. Baturally, the opposition stalwarts like Jayaprakash Narayan, Morarji Desai and others had an edge over the Congress. Trough it is well known that all the Jana.ta

10 251 components - Jan Sangh, the Socialists, Swatantra and Congress{O) - were never before accepted by the people as radical and orogressive (it was because that barring the Socialists, ~hey were all rightist parties full of conservative ideas like Hindu Shastra, anti-socialism, anti-communism.}, it was in fact the mass discontentment against the ruling government which did not protect the civil liberties and democratic freedom that Janata was fa-.> ured by the people. They strategically made the maximum use oi' the mass anger againstmrs.gandhi's autocratic rule. To a very great extent it can be said that tbey got a negative vote. The people thus voted.f'or Janata because they wanted to oust the Congress Government. It is thus clear that it was not Just the organisational strength of the Janata Party which counted but it was the Co~ress misrl.lle and the tide of mass upsurge which made them win the election. The voting turnout reflects the level of the consciousness of people. The voting turnout is generally influereed by the issues involved in the election. More crucial the issues involved, more ta the turnout. The Parliamentary elections of 1971 and 19?? are considered to be very crucial elections. In 19?1 the

11 image and future of Mrs.Indira Gandhi and her split away Congress group were on the stake. On the one side there was the conservative Syndicate and on the other side the new radical Congress which had gained popularity by announcing nationalisation of banks, abolition of the privy purses, a new industrial policy, by giving the "Garibi Batao" slogan. It was more or ideological fight between the old and new, between the radicles and the conservatism. But the 1977 issues were no less crucial. Here for the people, their freedom was at stake. People had suffered enough during the days of Energency. They l'bd witnessed the use of authoritarian power, the killings of innocent people. Thus, this election had become a platform.for the people to oust the Congress re~ime. The voting turn-out was naturally much more in 1977!bus, the outcome of 1971 and 1977 Parliamentary elections in India rei!lain very signi.ficant in the postindepemence political scenario for the growing vigila.rle of the Indian masses to safeguarding the rights guaranteed by the Cl>nstitution.