Vote Bank politics, A reality practice in India
Efficient functioning of any democracy is fundamentally based on its capacity to ensure free and fair elections. In a democratic setup, people must know what is good for them and given a chance, they must choose the best candidate among the available candidates. But unfortunately, in a developing country like India where a majority of rural population cannot even read or write, even those who can read or write are politically illiterate. Moreover,the official sources claim that around 37% of the total population is living below the poverty line. Now the way poverty line is defined in India, it is easy to guess that more than half of the population is struggling to make the ends meet. They do not have the time and energy to think who is governing them.
Keeping this in mind, a majority of politicians devise a divide and rule policy i.e. create divisions on the basis of caste, religion, language etc. And generate fear towards other communities and groups. It ensures that you get some loyal followers. A party knows that its not easy to get votes from the educated class because their expectations from the government are too much. So, the leaders focus on the lower strata of the society.When the candidates are in opposition ,they promise something which the lower strata is deprived of. In the process, a large section of the society remains under developed. Even the most developed states lack so many basic amenities that sometimes it feels, “how can we use the word developed”?
What we require is a leader who can follow a citizen centric approach, a leader who can be unbiased. A Leader who can think comprehensively about the country’s future, who can face protests for long term benefits. But unfortunately that does not happen. Politicians have to win the next elections. So they do whatever they can in order to come into power. Due to this selfish approach, a large number of people remain captivated in the shackles of poverty, illiteracy, ignorance and malnutrition. So it won’t be wrong to say that ironically “India is rich, but its people are poor”.
