By Raza Hasnain Naqvi

Indian politics is seeing a new kind of promise being delivered aggressively to the traditional voter. That major promise involves free ‘bijli’ or electricity to the voter in 2022 among other free and heavily discounted promises. Will the Indian voter who has always considered the issue of ‘caste’ of an election candidate as a driving force take such ‘free’ promises seriously and get influenced to vote on ‘bijli-paani-sadak’ chhaap issues?

India is all set to have assembly elections in seven states in 2022 next year. Stage is being readied by political parties to drive home their poll promises to the valuable voter. The party in power in each state going to election in 2022 is doing its best to highlight its ‘good work’ done for public benefit.

The parties in opposition are all staking a claim for a piece of the voters’ mind by promising one good thing after another if they get the vote. Voters of seven states – Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat may be scratching their heads now.

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Tried and Tested Steps

The Indian voter is used to the simple, tried and tested election steps that need to be taken. Those steps are:

• Come election day, go out from the house to the poll booth in their colony or area.
• Stand in line for a few minutes to a few hours. When turn comes, show your Voter ID to official, sign in the register or put thumbprint on register and then be directed to an enclosed area where the electronic voting machine (EVM) is sitting on a table.
• Then without much thought just press the button next to the symbol of the political party one likes; hear the long beep; see the printout of your pressed button drop in front of him in the VVPAT machine and then start walking outside the polling booth

Simple steps taken, easy implementation done and work is complete. Next is time to enjoy the rest of the day with the family as election day is a general holiday.

But something may be changing now in the mind of the voter. He/she is now grappling with a peculiar but tantalising thought that is being planted in his busy mind by one particular political party. That party has been continuously harping and playing one tune only whenever it has gone to elections. The politically advantageous notes in that party’s tune are related to things like Bijli free, paani free, education free and health free.

Personal Identity Vs Physical Needs

Generally, during elections, the Indian voter doesn’t hear this kind of blaring tune talking of such basic things like electricity, water, employment and health that impact him on a daily basis. He has been conditioned to understand and give supreme importance to the relevance of existential, emotional and philosophical needs of his personal identity, beyond his mere physical needs.

The promise of safety of a voter’s personal and religious identity at all costs from perceived “other” internal threats has been a successful go-to formula for all parties for generations. But for the past few years, the advent of Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Indian political scene has impacted the poll-winning strategies of most political parties to some extent. Where earlier, the political parties always considered the ‘Social Identity’ of the voter as the most important factor that needed to be applauded and served, now the same parties are being forced to consider the ‘Physical Identity’ of the voter too and address his most basic needs in their election manifesto.

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300 Units Free Bijli Factor

Here are some recent examples of announcements of uncommon poll promises. There is a churn in the Indian political scene as a result of such promises and most naysayers in both the media and political circles are confident that AAP will fall on its face by making such sky-high promises to the voter.

Take for instance, the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s announcement in Panaji, Goa on July 14, 2021. In a press conference, he stated before the assembled media that every month each family’s house in Goa will get free bijli upto 300 units if his party AAP comes to power in the state. He added that if Delhi people can get free electricity, then why not Goans.

This bijli promise was part of his “four guarantees” to the people of Goa. The other guarantees he gave were: waiving off of all old pending electricity bills; free electricity to farmers in Goa and every house to get 24-hr supply of electricity with no power cuts.

Kejriwal also doesn’t fail to add ‘world class’ with his ‘free’ announcements as soon as he starts listing his Delhi government schemes in such press conferences organised in different cities in multiple states that he visits, now that elections are close. He claims in a self assured tone that people in Delhi get zero water bill up to 20,000 litres; zero bill free electricity upto 300 units; free public transport for women; free world class schools and free world class healthcare.

This is the same Delhi model or Delhi mantra that Deputy Chief Minister in the Delhi government and AAP leader Manish Sisodia happily recites when he faces the poll-covering media nowadays in any state that he lands. Sisodia’s most recent recitation of Delhi model of ‘free’ bijli and ‘world class’ other things was done in Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh on September 16, 2021. He added with a flourish that 300 units of free electricity will be given to every household in Uttar Pradesh within 24 hours of coming to power in the state.

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Call of Caste or the Kindgom of ‘Free’dom

With AAP leading the agenda for basic issues of the common voter, other political parties have also sensed that there is a change in the wind around the voter’s mind. They too have started promising and talking about ‘free’ schemes that they have or will implement once they get the vote.

Earlier, the successful ‘social engineering’ of caste combinations and the last minute infusion of wine and money a few days before D-Day would have easily tilted the balance in favour of parties. But now, it seems the voter is becoming wiser and maybe more selfish from the standpoint of political parties.

Yet, the fact is this ‘selfish voter’ has been hit by the double whammy of Covid-19 and loss of jobs leading to high unemployment. He/she now wants something concrete from political parties. This voter has been forced to look around his ‘falling’ house and witness the pain of the dire condition of his family, his friends and relatives.

Check out the non-mainstream media news channels being run on YouTube that are actively and aggressively meeting and taking opinions of the common man standing with a wish on the road. That man on the road is coming out in the open and fearlessly talking about personal problems that he acutely faces. He is pointing fingers at all governments that never provided any solution to his basic needs.

This is the new-improved voter of India. He is unwilling to be satiated by emotional promises being doled out by political parties on elevated personal identity connected to his caste and religious upbringing. This new voter now wants it all. He is taking a peek at the Kingdom of ‘Free’dom that is being promised to him beyond the election curtain.

The call of caste still drives him, but what now grinds him is the push of poverty. This poverty and lack in his life may be THE influential force in the coming assembly elections in seven states of India in 2022.