Key indicators of voting decisions in India
India is the world’s largest democractic country. It has the largest working parliamentary democracy in the world.
Parliamentary Democracy refers to the form of government in which power lies in the hands of political party. On 26th January 1950, India joined liberal forces of the world as a sovereign democratic republic country.
It is important as citizens of India to vote during the elections. All citizens of 18 years or above of the age have the right to vote in Indian elections and choose their representative or leader.
The voting decision in India is influenced by several parameters like religion, caste, community, language, money, policy or ideology. Representatives of political parties target these parameters to attract citizens to vote for them. They use language, religions & communal sentiments of people to get votes. Some of them are indulging in bribing to get votes.
As a representative of people, he should always believe in rational secularism. According to which the representative should not influence voters morally.
As voters, we should always consider qualities like his performance, capabilities etc., rather than his demography, religion, caste and his money power while voting during the elections.
Here a few key metrics used by representatives to get votes and voters to give votes during elections:
1. Caste:
In India, caste plays an important base of social relations and it has deep roots in the society.
Representatives: Despite several measures political parties and their representatives use caste as a major factor to get votes.
Voters: The main issue is that, even now, voters in rural areas support these casteism. They vote for representatives from their own caste, ignoring his/her capability as a leader.
2. Illiteracy:
In India illiterates form a major proportion of vote. As a result, they play an important role in determining the outcome of any elections. Despite actions taken by the government to educate the citizens, the rural citizens are ignoring the importance of getting the basic education.
Representatives: Political parties and communal groups are exploiting the illiterates by attacking them on the emotional front or bribing them in the form of money, alcohol, sarees for women etc.
Voters: Illiterates generally fall into the trap when they are offered money. They never think of who the leader is, what he has done to the community or society etc. They are ready to vote for any candidate who is ready to give them money in exchange for the vote.
3. Election Campaign:
Political parties segregate voters into various groups and design election campaign accordingly. These campaigns are designed to make voters believe that his/her interests can be best served by their party and the candidate in person.
Representatives: Every party and its candidates perform a strategic campaign to influence the voters in their favor. They conduct mass meetings, street meetings, visiting houses personally. They use different mediums to reach like the posters, speeches on T.V, radio broadcasts, News Paper advertisements.
Voters: Most of the voters get carried away by the promises and assurances given by the parties and candidates during the elections. It’s very important as voters to gauge if the candidate really cares for them and if he can fulfill their promises before voting and electing them as leaders.
4. Money Factor:
In the present political and economic scenario, the role of money and other benefits given by candidates to voters plays a major role in voting decisions. Money is a major factor for parties to get votes from voters who are in below poverty level. Most of the large parties spend huge amounts of money to get votes in their favour.
Representatives: Candidates spend excessive amount of money to get votes in their favour. When they spend so much money, it’s obvious that they would like to earn more of what they have spent. So after winning the elections they will get involved in illegal activities and stop working towards the betterment of the society and make money.
Voters: As voters you should be responsible to not to accept the money from candidate. It’s important as responsible voters to elect leaders who are not money oriented and are always ready to work towards the betterment of the society.
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Vote for the man who promises least; he’ll be the least disappointing.
– Bernard Baruch
Let’s see a few other key factors used by candidates to get their votes during elections:
- Local Issues: Candidates and political parties’ try to maximize their votes and win elections by focusing on local issues. For this they identify local issues and use it during campaigns to secure the local public support.
- Current events: The current political and economic development that happens in election year, current problems and difficulties faced by the public as well as poll eve developments have a considerable impact on voting behaviour. The price rise, shortages and financial hardships faced by the people are some examples.
- Language: India is a diverse country with several hundred different languages, of which 18 are considered as official language. Division of country into states based on languages shows the importance of language in Indian political system. For example, in Karnataka there is a demand that regional language Kannada has to be made the common medium of instructions in public institutions and schools, but it is being opposed by other groups. Such problems are in almost all the states around the country since people are emotionally attached to their languages. Leaders target these emotional factors to get votes in their favour.
It’s not only the leaders who use these factors to get votes, even the voters support such things. This would be an issue till the citizens stop considering and supporting these factors.
In a democratically governing country, elections occupy a prominent place. Elections is a means by which citizens enforce and express their political decisions and regulate political system of the society. But as we discussed, behavior and voting decisions is regulated by several factors. It’s important that elections are conducted in a very fair and free manner.
Just the presence of electoral system doesn’t make a democratic political system. It also depends upon whether that system allows the freedom of thought, expression and association to its citizens. The opinion of the people is expressed through voting in elections and therefore, all unfair and undemocratic means like manipulating, unethical practices and rigging needs to be avoided.
Don’t waste your vote, make it count!