Elections in India are over. They resulted in the fall of a dynasty which ruled India since 1947 with a two minor interruptions, We have been pointing out that the electoral exercise in India is not democratic, but is a process to decide which group of the ruling majority will run the country for the next five years.
There were numerous shameful incidents which served to show India as the banana republic it is rather than the world’s largest democracy’ it purports to be.
These were the most violent elections in the history of India. They were marred by the deaths of over two hundred people; and the Congress I workers in Rajiv Gandhi’s own constituency set the example by firing at and wounding Sanjay Singh a prominent opposition leader who had served as a minister in Uttar Pradesh. He is still in critical condition; Rajmohan Gandhi, the grandson of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi who was opposing Rajiv in Amethi was roughed up and the Election Commission in India ordered re polling in Rajiv Gandhi’s own constituency another shameful first.
Other constituencies all over India saw jeep loads of toughs and criminals intimidating voters by firing in the air and at times at specific targets, storming and capturing booths and stamping fistful of ballot papers.
It is estimated that an election contest in one constituency involves the use of at least Rupees 1 million (about $60,000) in illicit funding which is provided by power brokers or criminals.
The candidates also have criminal backgrounds. Congress I’s Bhola Pandey in Uttar Pradesh has 5 criminal cases pending against him, Kali Pandey of the same party was detained for a bomb attack in Bihar, HLK.L. Bhagat was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Sikhs in Delhi in November 1984 etc.
It is not an uncommon thing for the poorer, under privileged and suppressed minorities and so called low castes to be turned away from the polling stations and to be told that their votes have already been cast. The under privileged can’t exercise their right to franchise.
Even if the election process was fair, there is not much to choose from: the Congress I party has been the vessel of the perpetuation of Nehru Gandhi dynasty since 1947 and has a record of communalism, corruption and casteism; the Bharatiya Janata Party represents ultra-fundamental Hundus who categorically demand a Hindu India it would even like to scrap the constitutional safeguards for the minorities; and the National Front is a new player.
All political parties in India resort to massive use of illegally amassed political funds, feeding communal fires, and physical violence. They use the trappings of a democracy to show the world that they are democratic.
It is time the world recognizes India as what it is a banana republic.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 1, 1989
