Elections: Citizens' initiatives

At a time when complicated electoral algorithms dominate media discussion about the world’s largest electoral exercise, a number of citizens’ initiatives are driven by something as basic as it is precious – dignity.

While such initiatives have diverse starting points, they are linked by the desire to restore people’s dignity — as voters and citizens – just by reasserting the need for accountability of elected representatives, and urging the people to themselves uphold the sanctity of the electoral process.

“Don’t just vote” says the website of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). “Vote responsibly”. This appeal is brought to life by a moving music video, which says that now is the time to redeem the promises of India’s freedom struggle.

Founded in 1999, ADR’s has been among the most ambitious initiatives, consistently working for transparency in politics over the last decade and a half. ADR now works with a network of 140 NGOs, collecting and collating data on candidates’ criminal antecedents and financial disclosures. More importantly, it highlights and publishes data on candidates with pending criminal cases.

In the same spirit, a group of Bangalore-based NGOs has launched a campaign called ‘Me & My VOTE are NOT for SALE’. The campaign is led by a social movement in Karnataka called the Grama Panchayat Hakkottaya Andolana (Movement for Self-determination of Local Governments).

In a two- pronged approach, the campaign calls on voters and candidates alike to pledge that they will neither buy nor sell votes. Over the years, it has not been uncommon for political parties to secretly distribute cash and goods in order to garner votes.

The digital component of the campaign, launched on March 18th, gives people the option to sign a pledge to this effect. Likewise, candidates are asked to pledge — ‘I will NOT BUY your VOTE, I will EARN it’.

Many of these efforts are building upon the Election Commission’s ‘People’s Awareness Programme‘, urging people not to succumb to inducements and illegal election-related activities across the country.

“The cure for an ill-functioning democracy is a larger dose of democracy”, says Nandana Reddy, a leading activist of the NGO Concerned for Working Children, and one of the drivers of the “NOT for SALE” campaign.

A wide variety of groups representing the interests of either particular communities, or those with special needs, have also launched initiatives. For example, the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), and the Centre for Law and Policy Research (CLPR), in Bangalore, have focused on how to make the elections more participatory, and accessible for voters with physical disabilities.

The Network Of Women in Media is monitoring mass media to collect data on election coverage in relation to women’s rights, and the representation of women – both voters and politicians.

Child Rights and You (CRY) has launched a public service campaign called ‘Vote for Child Rights’. The campaign, promoted largely through an animated film, asks candidates to include and prioritise child rights in their manifestos: like the right to education, nutrition, protection, and the right to a childhood. It exhorts people to vote for parties that do so.

However, not all citizen initiatives are non-partisan. Concerns about identity-based politics, perhaps the most contentious matter in this election, has led some groups to make specific recommendations to voters.

An activist network known as the Karnataka Secular Alliance has issued a list of candidates it deems secular. Similarly, the Milli Gazette, a journal directed at the Indian Muslim, has published a list of candidates it deems compatible with secular values.

Perhaps the most complex appeal has come from a group of activists and institutions out of Varanasi – where the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, and Aam Admi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal, are both contesting the same seat.

A statement titled “Activists from Varanasi Speak to the Nation”, begins by saying that since the election in their city has taken the form of a message to the nation, they would like to send a message that is “true to the people”.

Varanasi, they say, is home to great variety of traditions of knowledge and crafts. It is a syncretic culture, popularly known as the Ganga-Jamuni tahzeeb (a Hindu-Islamic melange). In light of this, the activists underscored to need to honour philosophies of human and social emancipation in order to nurture a society based on Truth and Justice.

“The people of Varanasi and its tradition have always stood against communal division of society”, the statement goes on to add. Therefore: “Hierarchy, discrimination, division and exploitation based on religion, caste, gender, education, class, poverty and riches, village and city, etc., should be resisted without compromise. We must realize the importance of philosophies of life and work to establish human values and the philosophy of sarva dharm samabhav, whose absence makes space for aggressive and sectarian totalitarianism’’.

Right To Information (RTI) activists have called their election campaign Jan Awaaz — People’s Voice. This platform aims to create an organised space for communicating peoples’ concerns and priorities to political parties, and hold them accountable when they come to power.

Jan Awaaz aims to “make elections a real and substantive vehicle for change, and not just capturing power”. The common minimum agenda of this platform are two key elements of the Indian constitution — the Directive Principles of State Policy, and the Fundamental Rights.

It is difficult to say how many voters such campaigns will actually reach out to. Such initiatives are typically effective in their immediate sphere, but not much beyond that.

Nevertheless, amid the sound and fury of these elections, the very existence of such campaigns is significant. Especially because the discourse has been polarised over the issue of secularism.

As the Jan Awaaz campaign statement says: “We believe that a republican form of government such as ours that runs on public trust and justification, must answer through its formal instruments on the progress made on meeting these constitutional promises made to its people. Let this be a campaign to make elections informed, the state accountable and in the process make democracy deeper and alive’’.

Rajni Bakshi is the Gandhi Peace Fellow at Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations.

This blog was exclusively written for Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations. You can read more exclusive content here.

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