Flights Of Fantasy
[ M Panging Pao ]
With elections approaching within the next few months, a flurry of activities has started across the state. For a state with numerous tribes, races and religions, there is a sudden increase in clan meetings, clan picnics, social gatherings, and village picnics. There are picnics for clan jijajis, clan daughters, etc. New social coalitions are cobbled together to collect voters in one group. Previously stagnant social groupings are reignited to accumulate like-minded voters.
Aspiring candidates put up calendars and posters at different parts of the capital and other townships. Posters bearing the photos of well-attired potential candidates don the walls of many dhabas and eateries along highways. There are even posters announcing the candidatures of potential MLAs much before the major parties declare their list of candidates.
Aspiring candidates start touring remote villages to meet voters and request for their costly votes. The core management teams start mobilising voters by throwing frequent parties. Vehicles and buses are hired to bring supporters to these events. The residences of potential candidates start resembling big hotels or resorts where food, tea, snacks and liquor flow nonstop. All potential candidates try their best to impress the local party leadership about their support base and therefore their claim to the official party ticket.
For the ruling party, there is a rush to announce popular schemes and sops before the elections guidelines are implemented. The flurry of announcements includes schemes like Sewa Aapke Dwar, Aatmanirbhar Krishi/Bhagwani Yojana, Matsyapalan Yojana, etc. There has been a flurry of inaugurations of bridges, offices and infrastructures, and other works are being expedited for completion before elections to impress voters about the works in progress and the developmental projects.
Amongst all these election procedures is the perplexing rule about posting out civil administration officers away from home districts. It may be conjectured that this step is taken to prevent them from influencing voters. However, this rule does not apply to engineers, doctors, forest, education officers, etc. Maybe the Election Commission has information that officers of other branches do not influence voters in their home districts, unlike civil administration officers.
Political discussions and groupings dominate many towns and even rural villages. These days, even village youths are politically well-informed.
Many of them are not well-educated but know and talk about Modi, Rahul Gandhi, Khandu, Gao, Kejriwal, etc. In one of these discussions, it was overheard that the going rate of expenditure for an MLA is about Rs 10-20 crore in Arunachal. With very less voters in our constituencies, where there are averages of 10,000 to 12,000 voters, many candidates attempt to win elections by buying votes. Buying votes in other constituencies of the country may not be possible due to the large numbers of voters, totalling from 1.5 to 2 lakh voters. When a candidate can win elections by getting just 2,500-4,000 voters, why not just buy them out? Most experts believe that elections in Arunachal are not fought on values like ideology, development, peace, stability, etc, but on money power and clanism. Do you agree? (The contributor is retired Group Captain, Indian Air Force)
