What’s There for a Writer in the Planet’s Biggest Election

by Mandira Pattnaik

Raajit Sharma

It is the peak of summer. Until a week ago, day temperatures were hovering between 40 and 45 degree Celsius, but there’s been an early onset of monsoon, and we should be enjoying the steady drizzle while munching pakodas and meeting friends over cups of chai. Seems, we are not. Instead we are debating furiously.

Wait. Am I in the middle of the greatest exercise in the assertion of choice in the history of the planet? You bet I am — general elections in India. The country’s 969 million-odd voters have been made to feel like royalty, treated to scores of promises of freebies and the prospect of ‘viksit Bharat’ (developed Bharat or India), been exalted for their steadfastness and resilience, and been reprimanded for foolishly falling to false niceties time and again. According to one estimate, a sum in excess of $14.4 billion is to be expended in just under two months, making it the most costly ever (for context, the US presidential and congressional races in 2020 spent an equivalent amount in final tally, and India is still a developing mixed economy!). The sum is said to be comparable to a cash burn rate faster than all the Indian start-ups combined. On the upside, this is expected to give a boost to the economy by adding 0.2–0.3% to GDP. All good then.

Wait. That’s where the good part ends. In the seven-phase elections, as many as 20–25% candidates in the fray have declared criminal cases registered against them. Established print and TV media have been biased. From BJP win in India’s 2024 general election ‘almost an inevitability’ to Modi appears to be throwing away his own lead in this election, it has been one helluva of a ride for us. There’s money and power in full flow, but there’s also an abundance of fun, particularly this time around, because of the use of social media by parties and common citizens alike. The stage itself is entertaining with leaders badmouthing each other, fake and false narratives floating across platforms (though quickly fact-checked by citizens themselves), and the legit projecting of real and created enemies (Pakistan and the opposition included) to intimidate voters. All bad then?

Wait. Not all is bad. Satirists and mimicry artists are having a field day. The odds and contrasts make for good content, used to the hilt by the many YouTubers in the country. Also, everyone has an opinion — the man on the street seems to be very well-informed, and have their own unique take on issues that they are unafraid to discuss (even though there’s an opponent most times, also from the street, with whom they may very well have come to fisticuffs when the camera is turned off). Great fun that is, no?

Wait. Not really. The observant Indian will also notice the disparity at all levels, and the sheer number of variables affecting “choice” here. But I can’t help but note the harmony at work in spite of it all, at least on the surface. And one cannot escape the many facets at play — urban and rural, domestic and foreign, jobless and employed, religious and not so, vegetarian and non-vegetarian, casteist and anti. All of these have emerged as “issues” at some point in the last month. It’s a study at many levels and I’m sure the foreign media camped here are aware that they haven’t seen anything as expansive or as complicated before. So that would make an ordinary citizen like me confused?

Wait. It does make me think, deeply and repeatedly, but I am not confused. As an Indian, I am used to this, though a side of me is offended by the scale of money and time we easily feel justified to expend in order to elect a bunch of people who’ll decide for us for the next five years. On the greater part, I wouldn’t have it any other way. None of us could accept any other model of governance, even if we find a thousand ills with the system we have in place right now. Everyone’s discussing and debating, so I am not doing things I’d otherwise do in my ordinary life?

Wait. Everyone’s still doing their jobs. And I hope no one’s harboring the belief that our lives will get much better post the fourth of June, when the election results will be out. It will be same grind as it is now. But I hope most are voting with the hope that it doesn’t get any worse. Are you staying up late every night to catch what’s going on or are you doing what you do best — write?

Wait. Why not both? Yes, I am writing but I am also observing. Elections in India are a great study in human psychology, crowd behavior, cultural/linguistic/ethnic/religious and regional diversity, the mechanics of the election machinery, social cohesion, macro and micro economics, and so on. As a sensitive and observant person, I am taking notes. When the camera pans over the assembled junta in a leader’s rally, I am observing the men and women who are responding to what’s being said. How is their reaction? What slogans are being raised? What’s the woman with the baby at her breast looking to gain from all this? As the leader is being interviewed later, I am watching their body language. How much fiction is stirred into the promises she makes?

Wait. Is it that convoluted? Not for the sales boy at M. S. Maniam & Co, among the oldest stores in Chennai, on the crowded lanes of Parrys. He had started stocking up on election paraphernalia from months before — generic flags, caps, scarves, towels, and badges dyed in party colors, also masks of popular leaders. I can see the palpable joy on his face when the fare quickly sells out.