It was all over in a jiffy. And now the climactic wait for the result. This election was a watershed of sorts just on one count alone: Schedule. While polls were due only in mid-May, the EC advanced them by a month through its notification in early March, giving the parties and people just over a month to decide their own fates, besides being harsh on itself. To its credit, the process, a gamble as well as a challenge of sorts, went through in a flash with nary a hitch, though it wasn’t easy all the way. Coming after such a compressed and cacophonic thirty days, the thirty-day calm after the storm certainly looks unnecessary, risky and even silly. It resembles the familiar wait for your Deepavali cracker to blow off after you had lighted it!
But burst it will, unlike some of the Sivakasi stuff. In a way the reigning calm is only to herald the next storm, circa May 13, ‘11, even though the ominous 13th Assembly virtually ended on April 13. While till date none of the political parties has anything to complain over the voting process, one can expect eruptions and even explosions on that Friday, the Thirteenth of next month when the lid comes off the Pandora’s boxes, rather, Pandora machines, now sealed and gathering dust. While J in all confidence has openly lauded the EC for the conduct of polls, foreclosing her option of blaming them in case of a future shock, K has so far refrained from making a comment either way, which means his jury is still out on the EC. He has instead lapsed, rather too eagerly, into his favourite vocation and pastime: watching a movie penned by self in the company of all the usual suspects. After all, that is one script he knows the climax of for sure.
Ideally, I should have skipped this column this week, for, the boredom is all too evident in the lethargic and laboured manner in which the words are coming through. Another one of those karmic compulsions of mine that for no fault of yours has rubbed on to you readers too. So, let me plod along in the faint hope that at least some of you are still there giving company. I brought in my personal predicament because I can connect it all up, as Perry Mason would have put it. But since P Mason is elsewhere cementing his clientele, let me argue my own case. And that is that the EC is, beyond all reasonable doubt, squarely guilty of screwing up the professional lives of us mediafolk as well as the living of many media organisations. The charges are aplenty. For one, polls in May middle would have meant more than two months of non stop grinding of grist and, therefore non-stop, relevance. With just a month, our minutes of fame have ended rather too abruptly.
Till 14 Apr, the phone never stopped ringing. Now, just 24 hrs have elapsed and not a soul is asking me who will win. Not that I know, but the very idea that many thought we knew was ego-tickling. Also, a shortened time frame and tough EC sanctions on candidates’ expenses meant lesser revenues, and this has stung many outfits. But worse is the wait. Having got used to getting the results out before the ink and interest dried up, the long hot summer ahead is actually a dampener. Forget about listening in to our profound views right through a prolonged limbo, many would even forget they voted! I curse the Election Commissioner to forthwith turn into an Editor!
Having made the point, let’s now rise above such private plaints and indulge in some petty talk. Now, what does the unusually high voter turnout signify? At around 70%, 2006 yielded a fractured verdict. At almost 80 % this time, it is quite a leap. Obviously, many who sat at home last time or before have ventured out and many have come of age, probably outnumbering those who left to meet their maker. While the former might have been emboldened by the thrust given by the EC to this democratic exercise, besides other provocations, the changing demography is no minor factor. To the just-18 neo voters, who must have been only children of 13 or 14 when the DMK came to power in 2006, the last five years of their growing up life is all that would have mattered in making their choice, that is assuming parents do not meddle. Bereft of the baggage of political memory, in their scheme the incumbent rulers naturally stand greater scrutiny than the past protagonists or protagonists with a past. Their enthusiastic presence at the booths, which probably accounts for a good part of the increase, is perhaps the real writing on the wall.
The most fashionable phrase this poll is the ‘angry voter’. What else do you expect, stupid? Who votes out of love for a candidate, unless one is dating him/her? Any way, that cannot obviously be all, if you see what I mean. But no doubt, anger was littered all over the electoral scene this time. The anger seemed more pronounced as a motivating factor owing to absence of any wave in favour of anyone. Blame it on the aforesaid ‘lack of love’ syndrome. Clearly, patience is at low stock with the harried people, thanks to endemic corruption and other endless woes. Though these are long-term legacies, the incumbent will face the brunt, all the more because the incumbent and his immediate descendants and dependents are visibly spread out all over the political and other landscapes of the country. But this anger will likely be a permanent phenomenon, like a Damocles sword above any ruler, henceforth. So, whoever comes to power cannot treat the verdict as a personal privilege but rather as a promissory note for performance. And that is as it should be. Surely, I have empowered someone to serve me, not to lord over me. That must be the permanent graffiti on the political walls. So status quo or change at the helm, we at the hustings must remain ever angry, lest we get ruled instead of being served.
But that is lofty logic to rationalise the high turnout. A simpler explanation is that freebies and some free flow of cash might also have worked. To many, rather than the din of democracy, the whirring of the grinder or mixie might mean more music to the ears. There is no dispute that this was a fully ‘free’ poll and only ‘fairly’ fair as money did move around, though not very conspicuously. Here, ‘change’ would have met its match in ‘status quo’, as the diligent TN electorate would have weighed the ‘offers’ and their own ‘options’ as they would in setting household priorities in their budget. For all you know, the choice before them was not between two candidates, but two appliances! With such serious ‘domestic’ issues at stake, is it a surprise that many queued up for their ‘right’? Now, anti-’free-for-all’ voters need take no offence. And I am not also suggesting that 18-year-olds voted for laptops.
So, with the polls far behind and the result far away, how do we kill time? Well, you and I just made a beginning this week!
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