Exercising your right to vote for the first time must feel liberating and empowering. Millions of Indians will be first-time voters in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The issues that determine their vote will be of interest to political pundits, academicians, soothsayers and the public at large.
The expected large number of young voters in this year's elections will have grown up in a post-Partition, post-Emergency, post-Liberalization era. They essentially do not carry any scars from the trauma of Partition, they did not form their political ideas around the time of the Emergency and in its immediate aftermath and they have spent the majority of their years in a state deregulating the economy and cutting red tape. Instead, these voters have grown up in an age dominated by politics of caste and religion, an age of cellular phones, the Internet and cable TV, an age of soaring aspirations and growing disparities.
What will be the foremost issues determining the nature of their vote? Is there a clear choice for the first time voter between the different mainstream parties or coalitions for that matter on issues of ideology, economy, security, foreign policy, or do we see overlaps that will put the voter in a conundrum?
Please post individual issues you feel young voters will have on their minds as comments to this post. We can expand on them in future posts and write about where the major parties stand on them.
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Considering the backdrop of the Mumbai attacks and the financial crisis, one big issue will be which party will be more likely to assert India's priorities on an international scale. On one hand you have a Congress party which is secular, but seems to be on the timid side when it comes to foreign policy, and on the other hand you have the BJP, whose religious fervor is looked down upon, but considering how assertive they were during the nuclear tests, could possibly bring back their "India Shining" campaign. Then you have the CPI(M) and other third front parties who don't seem to have history much of an international agenda, but their campaigns resonate much with regional groups.
ReplyDeleteConsidering the rampant inflation in India in the last few years, economic policy will be fairly important as well. Despite their best efforts, the Congress were not able to stop food prices from rising, but then again, the Indian government has subsidized everything for such a long time, that maybe it was time for consumers to face the real prices, rather than artificially lowered ones. Either way, the last few years have hurt people's purse strings, and they will definitely take this into account while voting.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, is domestic security. From the Sri Ram Sene's ridiculous antics to terrorist attacks, young, urban youth want to know that they can walk home safely at night. The dismal state of urban police forces and the atrocities and lapses that go unpunished make headlines daily. Yet little happens to counter these tendencies. A strong home ministry (perhaps with a minister with less sartorial priorities) will be important for the upcoming government.
I feel that for me, infrastructure development in India will be a major issue while deciding whom to vote. India, at present, has a lousy infrastructure, which is tattering in face of a growing demography and economy. we need more roads, electricity, trains, schools, hospitals, etc. to meet the challenges of the times to come. hence, for me, it is the top agenda !
ReplyDeleteThank you for those comments, Rohit and Saurabh. I will post on each of the issues you have mentioned sooner than later.
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