Should political campaigns be allowed to run for so long that politicians run out of issues and descend to really ugly name-calling? It is not as if it is an India today that has difficult to reach villages and towns, requiring enough time for the electoral outreach. Connectivity of various kinds is almost universal and it can be safely said that almost every voter gets more than an adequate dose of all the politicians contesting for power, whether it is through rallies, roadshows, social media or television. The cacophonous debates can be heard 24×7, painfully even in the states where the elections are not taking place.
It would be wise therefore for campaign time to be cut at least to half so that people can get on with their lives. How much persuasion is required for a person to decide which person or party to vote for, particularly as most are anyway committed to one or the other party? Ultimately it leads to overkill, with campaigners losing their perspective and going overboard in their speechmaking. With senior leaders heard bad-mouthing each other, one can only imagine the impact it must have on street level campaigners, who are expected to live with each other as good neighbours after the elections are over. The rising desperation also is probably the cause for all the irregularities being attempted to influence voter opinion, as also violence.
The Election Commission and the general establishment should arrive at a consensus on this issue, with a start being made in some small state, as a pilot project, to examine the viability. In this context, the idea about simultaneous holding of elections should also be taken up seriously. It is not good to have a jaded electorate that is exhausted with having to follow elections through the year and, then, having to make informed choices when it is their time. The impact on development and policy implementation has already been stated often enough. Even the freebie distribution continues to rise to unsustainable levels merely to catch the voters’ attention. A mature democracy should actually be moving in the other direction on the basis of a consensus regarding what is good for the country, overall. Hatred between individuals quickly spreads to castes, communities and ethnicities, which is unacceptable, to say the least. This next stage of reform should be implemented now.
