View: Time has come for voters to raise complaints

Election season 2022 is seeing early precipitation. Chief ministers have been changed in three of the seven states scheduled to go for assembly polls next year, party organisations are being retrofitted. Social media outfits are being refurbished so that they can efficiently propagate messages. Regional players smell their chances outside their state turfs.The initial lists of candidates for the 690 assembly seats of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa are expected to be rolled out any time soon. UP, with 403 seats, promises to provide the biggest spectacle, much like West Bengal did earlier this year. Scale apart, no one will cherish a repeat of the pathological conditions that marked the earlier round of state elections. But enough clouds are already gathering.On its part, the Election Commission (EC) has, together with chief electoral officers of the five states, commenced planning. Poll dates could be announced in early January, when the model code of conduct (MCC) should kick in. In today's unyielding political contests, however, MCC runs the risk of simply remaining a 'model' and less of a code of conduct, despite EC doing its best. The Representation of the People Act stipulates any attempt to provoke hatred on ground of religion or caste in elections as corrupt practice. But both are once again occupying the centre stage, pushing out other electoral concerns.Past studies have established voting based on loyalties of attribution, these voters described as a party's 'traditional vote base'. The farmers' protest against the new agricultural laws, topped by the recent violence in Lakhimpur Kheri in UP, and the caste census are becoming issues in election narratives. The spectre of fake news is also in the cocktail, with serious concerns about proliferation of bad blood among poll-bound communities.The latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) found a 214% increase in cases of circulation of fake news in 2020, compared to 2019. Stakeholders across the world, including 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner and Filipino-American journalist Maria Ressa, have alerted against the weaponisation of social media to undermine democratic institutions. EC has attempted some remedies through a mix of regulations and consultations. Prevention plans need to be even more robust.Politicians are usually good judges of people, at least of their electorate. While selling their candidature, they package it in a manner that the voter will like (read: will buy). Restraint from them is desirable, but in the hard pursuit of electoral victory, there is no incentive for restraint. Voters, as consumers, have the right to reject proposals of the 'sellers', and not get herded to polling stations. The time has come for the voter-consumer to raise complaints against the product.Candidate affidavits inform voters of their literacy level, criminal past and wealth. These are useful, and need to be given wider application. But they still are not sufficient instruments. Nota - none of the above - is an outstanding innovation of voter's option to reject the whole bundle of candidates. But this, too, may not be enough to enforce accountability. Voters walking all the way to the polling station to stamp Nota amounts to a repudiation of the system, while leaving no impact on the results.In the 2014 parliamentary polls, Nota polled over 1% of the total votes, even beating the winning margin in some seats, but without any consequence. Democracy activists have been clamouring for higher weightage to Nota votes. In its present form, Nota is a form of protest, not mitigation of voters' plight.Elections have parties, leaders and election managers as actors. But elections belong to the people. As EC prepared to put together the first election in 1951-52, president Rajendra Prasad gave a clarion call to his countrymen, 'You have the power of gods, and let me hope you would use it like gods.' The resonance of these words is the shield for electors in what could be another rough poll game full of fouls.The writer is former director general, Election Commission of India

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