Where to now, India?

On the night of May 15, 2014, as we all in the country are drowned in the media frenzy around exit poll results of the largest democratic exercise, the world witnessed over the last one month and with a day away from the actual results, the expectations of a nation are running high…

The fact that over half a billion people exercised their democratic right says a lot about the expectations this celebration of democracy carried! And these half a billion people, 540.83 million to be precise, a record of sorts (even above what was witnessed in 1984), are waiting with bated breath the outcome on May 16^th. And whilst exit polls clearly show that the BJP and NDA emerging as a single largest group with seats tally anywhere between 249 and 340, the anxiety is palpable! I being a supporter of Modi, am pleased with the projections of exit polls and hope they translate into real results on the 16^th with the NDA emerging victorious with a clear majority.

However, this is not what I want to talk about here – what’s equally interesting is that whilst BJP and NDA is expected to cross the half-way mark with a 272+ seat verdict, from one of the exit poll predictions, it is seen that BJP polled only 35% of the cast votes and other national parties such as the Congress polled around 25% and the new entrant AAP (if we can call it a national outfit), polled about 3%, making it only about 63% of the overall votes cast for national parties – the remaining 37% went to parties who are regional – making regional parties the single largest block to which India voted. And to this, if were to add the India that did not cast its vote in the last one month, then, the picture is even more dismal pegging BJP at a dismal 23%, Congress at 17% and AAP at 2% and thereby the reducing the national parties to a measly 42% vote share and thereby pegging the regional parties at a significant 58% vote share – this of course rides on a big assumption that the people who did not vote during humanity’s biggest festival of democracy are those people who did not believe in the process or were disillusioned with the candidates on offer and hence would have pressed NOTA on EVMs. Regardless, that’s a minor thing as what’s important is that the regional parties are the single largest voted block across India. What it further means is that even though BJP-NDA shall emerge as the largest party with clear majority in Parliament, it enjoys confidence of only 35% of Indians who voted – the remaining 65% Indians voted against this would-be government. And, even though this is not a new thing and has been the story of almost all elections in the country for the last many decades now, it shows the extremely fractured nature of this mandate.

What does this mean?

Is this the manifestation of the fact that we are more a nation of debaters and lesser of doers? Or, is this the manifestation of the fact that we are a nation that’s busy mostly trying to pull down the other person than helping him or her reach their goal and thereby collectively we all reaching ours? Or, is this the manifestation of the fact that we are a nation full of argumentative people and less of reconcilers and healers? Or, is it the manifestation of a nation that is brimming with regionalism and subdued nationalism? Or, is it a manifestation of all these?

Whatever, this may mean, it’s clear that it’s not good for the nation – not that I am saying we should not have some of these traits as a citizen of this great nation, we should – but, in measures that bring out our richness as a nation and not beyond such that it hampers our oneness and compromises our strength and growth.

So, more than ever, its now that we need to build the bridges between these chasms among us as a nation and connect the 35% with the 25% with the 2% with the 37% into one seamless nation. And, I am sure Modi will help achieve this when he says that he wants to take every one together in the collective act of nation building. And if as a leader, he sets an example for citizens to follow, we all can help and contribute in making an India which debates passionately, yet believes in doing and does; an India where people support the other to achieve their goal and overall greater collective goal; an India where reconcilers and healers outnumber the argumentative and finally an India where nationalism overwhelms regionalism, yet maintaining our cherished diversity! Amen!