Beyond the Lines | Indian elections: What the biggest show on earth can teach the world

This was going to be the global election year that decides the fate of the world. This was also going to be the biggest election in the world’s biggest democracy. With over 900 million broadband subscribers, the Indian voter is more plugged into the commentary of the voting analysis, trends and outcomes.

The cacophony of election analysis is hardwired into the heads of Indian citizens through their phones and devices, their choices dictated by opinions and beliefs, which in turn has been an outcome of results seen in the last five years. Yet, when I went to cast my vote this Monday, the booth-level machinery was so well-oiled and efficient that beyond the cacophony of election sloganeering and digital pyrotechnics, the unassuming power of silent citizens dutifully stepping up to vote on their appointed day, sans drama or hyperbole, held up a useful guide for the rest of the world to emulate.

India, the world’s most populous democracy, is currently holding its general election over a seven-phase period that continues for seven weeks. Indians can vote between 19 April and 1 June, with the results set to be declared on 4 June.

The World Decides in 2024

Over fifty elections take place in 2024, including some of the most impacting ones such as the US, Russia, India, Taiwan. Fifty-one per cent of the world will either have a new dispensation or continue with the existing one. As elections take place across the world, the festival of democracy in India is expected to be among the keenly contested, fair and well organised ones in the world.

These elections have also proved that India sets consistent standards in choosing their leaders, disproving a biased opinion about democracy and elections that certain western thinking has held towards India. Using a template of a fairness score to evaluate the independence of elections in countries, as a well-known western publication recently did, reduces the process of choices in elections to a rating number which can both end up being biased and patronising, and is dictated by a long-held expectation that Indian polls are simultaneously cantankerous and exotic — a work in progress democracy that promises to be civilised but is never one. It also served to quietly aid a narrative that the democratic processes in the west are superior.

Why India’s Free Elections Trumps West’s Bias

Take for instance, the freedom and fairness score accorded to India’s elections, which is 0.53 and compare it to the other nations in their leadup to the elections. Mexico is a country heading for elections this year. In this election cycle, 30 candidates have already been assassinated, according to data from the research firm Laboratorio Electoral. In 2021, 30 candidates were killed while in 2018, the elections saw 24 killings. These elections are expected to be among the most violent. According to western pundits, Mexico has a freedom and fairness score of 0.75 in the conduct of elections, which indicates the elections are more ‘just and fair’ than in India. Parts of western media has been unduly harsh on India, rating its fairness score of elections at 0.53.

In Indonesia, the electoral process is still dominated by corrupt or influential leaders who grew powerful during the authoritarian rule of Suharto. Democracy is new, and power oscillated between influential stakeholders, till Joko Widodo, an outsider, broke the stranglehold. Thereafter, a general took over as President — one the west has accused of human rights abuses. Interestingly, Indonesia’s freedom and fairness score stands at 0.68, higher than India. Which means that the credibility of Indian elections is just about better than the banana republics — an assumption that betrays the negative bias of such studies.

The US, rated high in freedom and fairness index by the publication, struggled under serious allegations of tampering and influence by Russia and the subsequent response of Trump supporters laying siege in Washington DC after losing the elections indicated a democracy that was functional but not civilised. On the other hand, far from the history of some of the nations, who have either embraced dysfunctional democracy along the way or seem to be falling by the wayside in terms of their law and order situation in the lead up to the elections, India has maintained an enviable record of holding free and fair elections over seven decades.

The Decisive Indian Vote

From the general election held in 1951-52 in which 17.5 crore Indians, voted in the elections to the 18th Lok Sabha that are under way, the process has evolved and matured along with Indian democracy over the decades. So have the voters graduated, from being largely illiterate to being well informed and technically savvy while making choices.

The CEC explained why the voluntary nature of casting votes means that the ECI operates ‘in an entirely persuasive space, inviting the citizens to volunteer to become part of the electoral roll and, thereafter, through systematic voter awareness programmes, motivates them to exercise their franchise.’ There is a high elector to population ratio which underpins the discipline, patience and belief that Indian voters have demonstrated in executing the process. The power of Indian elections demonstrates a growing, emerging India that is willing and ready to show how democracy is a proven political system in this world. Take for instance the example of Jammu and Kashmir.

Since 1989, all earlier elections in the region had been plagued by violence and a tendence towards anarchy, influenced by separatist parties. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Anantnag, Srinagar and Baramulla — the Lok Sabha seats — recorded dismal attendance.

Baramulla recorded 46 per cent voting in 1996. Thereafter it has struggled to have voters on election days. Twenty-eight years later, 59 per cent of Baramulla showed up to vote on polling day, breaking the previous record.

This time, local political leaders have addressed large crowds who are keen to be a part of the time-tested process of democracy and express their opinions at the poll booths, unlike earlier times when boycotts dominated Kashmiri elections and the turnout, cowed down by the gun, often struggled to crawl out of single digit percentage attendance.

The resolve to bring Kashmir out of a rut of decades-old militancy by taking the gun out of the equation has helped locals trust the power of the ballot in making lives better instead of being ruled by fear of militancy. There is a growing curiosity about the choices available in a democracy through the power of the ballot, which many people in the state now see value in, unlike across the border where democracy is in shambles and offers no choices.

Younger India: 18 Million First-Time Voters

One of the key aspects in these elections is the addition of over 2-crore young first time voters. These voters, in each successive edition, are going to boost a voting population that consumes digital information and has a strong sense of independent opinion. A keen interest among young voters has led to parties canvassing through digital platforms. An increasingly politically conscious, intelligent but less patient voter base has meant that parties have had to address more matured issues – which also tells us how India has travelled a fair distance from the days when Garibi Hatao was a dominating slogan.

The voter turnout, lower in the early stages, yet reflects an involved participation of its citizens across the country. In a country where different belief systems have held sway, the one common space where India comes together as a country is its general election. Which is why, an election season resembles a festival of choices rather than a mere mechanical process of choosing.

India Votes for the World to Emulate

In the previous national edition in 2019, the Election Commission confirmed a 67 per cent turnout. The Americans were marginally higher in the same period while voting in their elections. The Indian elections have also been among the most expensive elections, in which political parties spent more than 7 billion in 2019, higher than the spends in the US elections in that period. Not only are the Indian general elections the largest poll show on earth — they are also the most intensely contested and certainly, sets the bar for America to follow this November.

While wars and conflicts singe the world in most parts and certain nations have gone berserk losing their way while making choices, India proves yet again that this election festival of citizens is not only the biggest but also the most civilised and sane process on earth.

The writer is the author of ‘Watershed 1967: India’s Forgotten Victory over China’ and ‘Camouflaged: Forgotten Stories From Battlefields’. His fortnightly column for FirstPost — ‘Beyond The Lines’ — covers military history, strategic issues, international affairs and policy-business challenges. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views. Tweets @iProbal