DailyPost 2757
MANUFACTURED ELECTION AGENDAS
Noam Chomsky long time back wrote a book on Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. Democracies have weird ways of handling themselves and more often than not, in hindsight, it does not turn out to be the right thing. Indian democracy has its own variant; of manufactured election agendas. If the issues of the people were to be on the election agenda, notwithstanding the political parties, the fate of the country would have been different. Either the political class is too naïve to understand the complex issues or it does not have the competence to that or they have their own agenda or a combination of these.
More often than not the acts of the leaders or their persona are the instant agenda, magnified into that of the nation; emotions swayed, votes casted, counted and results declared to complete the election agenda life cycle. This has been happening since the first election post emergency till the last one. The capability of a leader or party to create an agenda and force the national narrative in that manner is known as manufactured agenda. Emergency to Bofors to 2G / CoalGate to Balakot, the country has been voting on such agendas for quite some time.
Non-continuity of any agenda into the next election is the litmus test for the agenda being a manufactured one. Robustness of a democracy can never be directly proportional to manufactured election agendas. It can only fall flat on your face. It makes ensuing governments non-functional and ad hoc governance becomes the order of the day. There is no glue which can bring it together. Even when some sensible agenda points are proclaimed, no one knows how to go about it. The Indian political class is bereft of the capability to deliver as it lacks the wherewithal / expertise or demonstrated capability to execute. Governance cannot fructify in this air.
Rampant corruption has been the order of the day for decades. In such a scenario one odd case is made out to be an ultimate exception, just because it was caught and a whole election is built around it. Many elections are decided in this manner. It can be just called surreal how an Indian politician or party can make corruption an issue when nearly the whole political class is neck deep into it. How to cover it up is the unstated main agenda. The use of corrupt money in elections should be the first election agenda. Unemployment and poverty are our evergreen heroes, being no one’s baby, leave aside quality of education and ensuring quality healthcare, which don’t deserve a place in the sun, but are at the root of all our issues.
ELECTION AGENDA AND PEOPLE SEEM TO SHARE AN ADVERSARIAL RELATIONSHIP.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.