Ballot box as change agent

Book review of Rasheed Kidwai's 'Ballot: Ten episodes that have shaped India's democracy'

As the sub-title suggests, Ballot tries to zero in on 10 episodes in India’s electoral history that have shaped the country’s democracy. That’s a tall order when one gets down to it. To begin with, there are way too many elections to consider — all the Lok Sabha polls as well as state Assembly polls conducted since 1951. Moreover, it is arguable whether a particular election, and by that we essentially mean the final result, shaped India’s democracy or was it just the effect of some crucial event in the lead up to the election. 

Take the 1991 general elections. There were many variables at play. The Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress had squandered the massive mandate it received in 1984 in the immediate aftermath of his mother’s assassination. There was widespread social unrest given the Mandal Commission recommendations being implemented by the V P Singh government. There was also the rising political tide of Hindutva in the form of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Not to mention the severe economic stress that necessitated a structural rethink among the policymakers. Add to this the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi on the eve of the election. So, one could justifiably treat the 1991 election result as the effect of one or more of these causes. Alternatively, one could also analyse it from the perspective of the effect it had on India’s economy and polity after 1991. Perhaps the answer is that each election is a bit of both. That means that there can’t be neat demarcations for the 10 episodes in question. 

Rasheed Kidwai, is a well-respected journalist who has tracked Indian politics for a long time. He has two other books to his credit —a biography of Sonia Gandhi and a short history of the key Congress party leaders. Since much of Indian electoral history is dominated by the Congress, Mr Kidwai’s expertise comes in handy and fills the book with interesting anecdotes.

So what are the “final 10” in Mr Kidwai’s worldview? It might surprise many that the author starts with the 1967 and the 1971 general elections, bypassing the Jawaharlal Nehru era for the most part. The period between 1967 and 1971 (when early elections were called) witnessed the transformation of Indira Gandhi from a “Gungi Gudiya” (dumb doll) to arguably the strongest prime minister India ever witnessed. In fact, the very next episode focusses on the imposition of Emergency in 1975, as Indira Gandhi grew too strong for a democratic set-up, and the 1977 general elections, when the voters punished her for her excesses. 

The next big episode was the 1984 election when Indira Gandhi was assassinated after Operation Blue Star and Rajiv Gandhi notched up a brute majority in the Lok Sabha. Then comes the rise of the “wily fox” P V Narasimha Rao, who pipped several stronger contenders in the Congress to the prime minister’s post even as the Nehru-Gandhi family took the back seat. 

Mr Kidwai skips over more than a decade  — one that saw lots of elections and lots of prime ministers, especially the first successful non-Congress government (under Atal Bihari Vajpayee) to complete a full term — to focus on the 2004 elections, which saw a Sonia Gandhi-led Congress surprise everyone by forming the first United Progressive Alliance government. Mr Kidwai ends the national election cycle with the rise of Narendra Modi and his outstanding campaign in 2014. 

Though he has skipped over large chunks of the political timeline, the narrative in these first six chapters does not appear disjointed. Mr Kidwai takes care to provide a bridge between his choice of elections by filling in the key details that an uninitiated reader may need to continue reading. 

The last four chapters are dedicated to four regional leaders. The first is N T Rama Rao, who became the chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh in the 1980s  and successfully challenged the might of the Congress party even when it was the only political pole on the national stage. The second is Mayawati, who rose from as humble a background as possible to become the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous, and, politically the biggest, state. In fact, Ms Mayawati was the first CM of UP to complete her term of five years. The third is Mamata Banerjee, who defied all political odds, outmanoeuvred the Congress party in West Bengal to form the All India Trinamool Congress and then uprooted the over-three-decades-long Left front government in the state. 

One entry, however, is odd: The inclusion of Bal Thackeray. Not only did he not stand for elections, he was, in fact, disenfranchised for six years for his conduct. But then, however unpalatable the fact may be, it is true that Bal Thackeray was a key influence in state and national politics.  

One could quibble with the author for all the leaders he did not detail — say, E M S Namboodiripad, who led the first communist government ever elected in the world. 

Several states have gone unrepresented too. But for a very short volume such as this, Mr Kidwai provides a capable introduction to Indian politics. The more legitimate grouse would be the lack of an overarching and detailed analytical framework linking the elections to their impact on India’s democracy.

Ballot

Ten episodes that have shaped India’s democracy 

Rasheed Kidwai 

Hachette

156 pages; Rs 399