Voters want state to deliver, 2014 elections showed: Writers

Voting patterns and consumption needs symbolises the changing values of Indian society, participating writers and thinkers at the India Non Fiction Festival said here today.
The recent Lok Sabha elections underlined a need for change along with a strong desire of delivery from the state, participants at a panel discussion "The Great Indian Social" said.
"The belief of change, rather than sectional needs (of society) as well as more and more people thinking about the need for the state to deliver on its promises of health, education, housing has been clear in the elections," sociologist Dipankar Gupta said.
The "aspirational" voter and choices affecting his vote was another topic that came up for discussion.

"It is very dangerous if we can talk of aspiration and limit it only to a certain part of the society. And fact that it has not been paid attention by us is the central problem," said journalist Hartosh Singh Bal.
The panelists further noted that the changing consumption patterns of Indians was at the core of the variations in various facets of the society like health, education, housing, etc.

"The changing lifestyles have led to people going from hunger to heart diseases. Also, there are instances where the state itself has been subsidising ill health," noted science columnist and author Dinesh Sharma said.

Elaborating on Sharma's argument, Gupta noted that beedi rolling was made part of small scale industry in order to cater to various vested interests.
"It took 15 years for the government to decide on what type of warnings should be there on tobacco products," he said.
Gupta added, "Government of India has a complete infrastructure to support tobacco Industry, including the Tobacco Research Institute."
Expression of religion and its changing manifestations were also discussed with social commentator Santosh Desai pointing out that religious expressions have undergone a transformation to deity centric a shift from the earlier focus towards a universal anonymity.