Date:10/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/05/10/stories/2006051002061000.htm

Back Vive la voter!

The voter has spoken in the States of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, and at Rae Bareli from where Ms Sonia Gandhi is contesting. The percentage of voter turnout in all the three States has been gratifying, being between 60 and 75. Voting at around 43 per cent in Rae Bareli constituency was poor by comparison; perhaps because of the searing heat wave and the complacency induced by the certainty of Ms Gandhi's victory.

The eagerness and enthusiasm of the electorates were palpable in the three States. The fact that the elections passed off smoothly is a tribute to the maturity and confidence of the voters as well as to the competence and impartiality of the election staff of all categories. The people of India can be legitimately proud of the Election Commission for pulling off so impressively a mammoth operation with few parallels elsewhere in the world.

Even the spreading of the voting in West Bengal in five phases — which to many seemed a gratuitous affront — has proved a blessing in that it will help rebut once and for all the unsubstantiated charge of "scientific rigging" by means of which the Left Front is supposed to have continued in power uninterruptedly from 1977.

No doubt, the vigorous efforts in a competitive spirit put in by parties and their candidates to woo the voters with alluring promises is an index of their healthy fear of their sovereign masters wielding the power of the vote. But, it is seen again and again that once the elections are over, the people are left high and dry, with the elected representatives seldom visiting their constituencies.

The real problem with the Indian brand of democracy is not the elections, but the people not having a whip hand to enforce accessibility, accountability, responsiveness and transparency on the political parties and the governments in between elections. Civil society must give serious thought to this.

B. S. RAGHAVAN