Back when the polio virus was still virulent across India, the government set out to eradicate it, asserting that if election paraphernalia could reach every nook and corner of the country, so could polio drops. This conviction of the millions of stakeholders involved helped eliminate the stubborn scourge. The same could be said of nearly every development challenge.
Few countries can rival India’s election preparation — reaching the most elusive voters in a geographically large, topographically diverse, and unevenly developed ecosystem. The meticulous supervision by the Election Commission of India and state administrations, the robust mechanisms of delegation and accountability and the synergy between various government agencies help ensure the successful conduct of India’s general elections. Elections demonstrate the last-mile connectivity our administrative machinery has managed to achieve. It is awe-inspiring to witness first-hand how mostly no impediment, natural or man-made, can get in the way of the right to vote — of anyone, anywhere.
In my profession, I’ve had the chance to discover peculiarly positioned villages, nestled amid imposing mountains on all sides, along India’s eastern end bordering Myanmar. The sheer height of the surrounding mountains obstructs most mobile signals, reducing these places to stubborn communication shadow areas. For intra-village communication, villagers are compelled to use rudimentary walkie-talkie sets, much to the chagrin of the security forces manning the international border. The story of villages located deep inside protected forest reserves on the Indo-Nepal border is similar. One is required to navigate treacherous dirt roads and crocodile-infested rivers to reach some of the farthest villages. The challenges of accessibility and communication, even for essential services like healthcare, education and policing in these places, is to be seen to be believed.
The landscape, however, stands rather altered in the run-up to elections. Special communication teams of the Government of India undertake arduous journeys to erect repeater towers on mighty mountains and establish relay stations in dense jungles to ensure poll-day communication in shadow areas. Lakhs of personnel of the Central Armed Police Forces and state police forces travel across the lengths and breadths of the country, one election phase after another, to preempt and counter any kind of security sabotage. Notwithstanding the subsistence-based economy of local towns, serving minuscule populations of modest means, godowns are filled with LPG cylinders and provisions, ensuring that the security forces and polling parties would be as well provided for during election duty in these difficult areas as anywhere else. In the event of sudden rains and landslides, the personnel hop off their vehicles to make precarious treks, bearing the weight of EVM machines, arms and ammunition, and their rations to reach their place of polling duty. Strategically stationed helicopters remain on watch, in case of accidents due to the treacherous routes or weather, arriving with clockwork precision in the event of any adverse event.
The more underdeveloped a place, the harder the administrative machinery works to have it included in the democratic exercise. This is why some of the most remote places in the country choose the election time to flag their challenges, often by threatening an election boycott. The recent boycott by the voters of six remote districts in Eastern Nagaland is a case in point.
It is time that the exacting standards of India’s election preparation are extended to day-to-day administration and governance, particularly in the backwaters of India’s development landscape.
The infrastructure manpower and citizen-mapping undertaken during the election exercise mines a wealth of baseline data which could be leveraged for auditing past performances, planning future government programmes, fixing responsibility, and ensuring targeted delivery of public services. Consistently poor voting percentages in certain parts of the country can serve as micro referenda on the enduring gaps in governance. They may be symptomatic of the disillusionment of the people, given the response to chronic local development issues, unresolved security challenges or ideological alienation. The data on polling percentages should be used to design customised policy interventions along the lines of NITI Aayog’s “transformation of Aspirational Districts Programmes”. Improvements reflected through subsequent voting percentages and reduced challenges in conducting elections can help identify, reinforce and reward the respective corrective measures taken between two elections.
It would be ironic to persevere through the mightiest of challenges to protect the franchise of our citizens in the most difficult, desolate places, but to slack off in enhancing the provision of public services and quality of life for the same citizens. For what else will make the exercise of the franchise a true “parv” (festival) and a matter of “garv” (pride)?
The EVM boxes that reach everywhere need not be restricted to ferrying EVMs alone. They could also be accompanied by dependable and accessible healthcare, quality education, responsive policing, weatherproof roads, clean fuel, electrification, and high-speed connectivity. That would be the true tribute to India’s democracy — to provide what its people need.
The writer is an IPS officer who served in the districts on the Indo-Myanmar border in Nagaland in the previous election. She is presently serving as SP of District Bahraich on the Indo-Nepal border. Views are personal
