Electoral Politics in the Time of Change: India's Third Electoral System, 1989-99 Author(S): Yogendra Yadav Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol

Electoral Politics in the Time of Change: India's Third Electoral System, 1989-99 Author(s): Yogendra Yadav Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 34, No. 34/35 (Aug. 21 - Sep. 3, 1999), pp. 2393- 2399 Published by: Economic and Political Weekly Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4408334 . Accessed: 09/01/2014 20:07 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Economic and Political Weekly is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Economic and Political Weekly. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.59.62.83 on Thu, 9 Jan 2014 20:07:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Electoral Politics in the Time of Change India's Third Electoral System, 1989-99 Yogendra Yadav The popular reading of the last decade of electoral politics is of a rapid decline and impending collapse of Indian democracy. This essay attempts to contest this all too familiar view from above without yielding to the temptation of building its mirror-immage. The changing outcome of the electoral game in this decade is seen here as the reflection of a fundamental transformation in the terrain of politics which in turn is anchored in the process of social change. The voters choose differently in this decade, for, the structure of choice inherent in elections has undergone a change. Yet the choice often turns out to be far from the act of sovereignty that the fiction of liberal democracy makes it out to be. AN attemptto understandthe politics of Interpretingmodem politics is a demand- gone a change.The size, the composition electoral choice in contemporaryIndia ing activity in the best of times. But the andthe self-definition of-those who choose bringsus face to face with a tensionthat cognitive demandsplaced on the inter- havechanged. More and more citizen from lies at the heartof India's currentdemo- preter of contemporaryIndian politics the lower rungs of society participatein cratic transition,if not at the heart of appearexcessive even by that standard. this ritualof choosing, they come not as democratic theory itself. The current For one thing, the received conceptual individualbut as groups,and they bring decaderepresents the full unfoldingof the frames of various hues were never de- withthem their own tastes and worldviews. contradictionbetween the logic of politi- signedto graspthe specificityof the path They havemuch more to choosefrom and cal equalityand that of social inequality, of democracy in a poor, non-western they exercise their right to reject very something that Ambedkarhad warned society. Besides, there was no way the frequenctly,as the site of choicehas moved againstin the Consititutionassembly it- feeble intellectualattention given to the closer home. Yet the choice turnsout to self. The dynamicsof political equality taskof collectingrelevant information and be farfrom the act of sovereigntythat the triggeredoff by theinstitution of universal makingsense of it in Indiacould have met fiction of liberaldemocracy makes it out adultfranchise and the self-reproductive the scale andthe paceof eventsin the last to be. The voterscan choose froma given processes of the structureof socio-eco- decade. set, but they cannotdetermine which set nomic inequalityinherited from the past The most commonreading of the last to choose from.They can elect someone have both crossed a certain threshold decade of electoral politics, in its aca- and then throw himself out, but there is withoutbeing able to tamethe othercom- demic and popularversions, is a storyof preciouslittle that they can do to ensure pletely. the rapiddecline and the impendingcol- thatthe representativesactually represent As theparticipatory upsurge leads to the lapse of Indiandemocracy. It finds signs them once in power. downward of the of election to spread democracy, widespread fatigueleading THIRDELECTORAL SYSTEM political processes begin to disturbthe populardisinterest in and cynicism to- inheritedritual social hierarchy and trouble wardspolitics. The last decadestands out The period since 1989 is best charac- theestablished elite with hitherto unknown for suddenoutburst of some of the mala- terisedas a new electoralsystem, the third anxieties.Since elections are associated dies inherentin our system:the endemic one since the inaugurationof democratic withmuch of this upheaval,the spectacle multiplicationin the numberof political elections in 1952. Normallythe expres- of election has come to occupy an aura parties and the fractionalisationof the sion 'electoralsystem' is usedin the limited of 'samudramanthan', the grand ritual politicalspace; the rise of regionalparties sense of the formalrules thatspecify the churningof the social sea by the small and caste-communitybased partiesthat procedure(first-past-the-post or the pro- gods of democracywith the help of the threatento unleashfissiparous tendencies portionalsystem, for example)followed modem instrumentof a vote. But just as anda clashof primordialloyalties; end of in elections. In that sense therehas been this churningseems poised to yield the ideology-basedpolitics and the declineof no change in our electoral system. But proverbial'amrita', it comes up against politicalmorality; and, of course,exces- politicalhistorians have also used the same therocky bed of economicinequality. The sive politicalcorruption, non-governance, expressionto capturea certainconstella- mayaof collectiveaction and the invisible disorderand instability.To sum up: our tion or patternof the outcome and the 'rakshasa'calledIdeology conspire against politics is one big mess. determinants of electoral choice that all the smallgods. The churningdoes not The principleambition of thisoverview characterisea certainperiod of history.l stop, the spectaclegoes on. Yet at some of the electoralpolitics of the last decade In this substantivepolitical sense, we can level it turnsinto a harmlessgame, subtly is to contestthis all too familiarview from talk of a new electoralsystem when we delinkedfrom some of the gravestthreats above withoutyielding to the temptation detecta destabilisationof andits replace- it posedto thelords who inheritedthe sea. of buildingits mirror-image.The chang- ment by a new patternof electoralout- It is hardlysurprising that the enactment ing outcomeof the electoralgame in this comes as well as its determinants. of this storythrough a series of elections, decadeis seen here as the reflectionof a In this substantivesense the first four all in the course of 10 years or so, has fundamentaltransformation in the terrain generalelections from 1952 to 1967 fall stumpedanalysts of Indianpolitics, often of politicswhich in turnis anchoredin the underthe first election system. The one deceiving them into a surface reading processof socialchange. The voters choose partydominance of the Congressmeant of the entire process as no more than a differentlyin thisdecade, for the structure that the elections in this periodwere not horse-race of political entreprenures. of choice inherentin electionshas under- seriouslycompetitive in thisperiod marked Economic and Political Weekly August 21-28, 1999 2393 This content downloaded from 128.59.62.83 on Thu, 9 Jan 2014 20:07:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions by a low level of electoralparticipation. ideologies was adaptedto suit popular politics:Mandal, Mandir and Market. The The choice was betweenthe omnipresent taste.2 almost simultaneousand sudden occur- Congressand its regionally fragmented On the face of it, the 1989 electoral rance of these three events - the imple- opposition;often the opposition came from verdict appearedno different from the mentationof the MandalCommission's within the Congress.Electoral loyalties earlierwave electionsof the secondelec- recommendationsfor OBC reservations, werefixed at the nationallevel unless the toral system.In many ways thatelection the BJP's rathyatrathat catapultedthe constituencylevel preferences dictated indeedbelonged to the earlierperiod. The Babarimasjid dispute into national promi- short-termdeviations from it. The voter rise of V P Singh had galvanised the nence and the forex crisis leadingto the of course did not vote as an individual, opposition to the Congress. The anti- implementationof the first phaseof IMF butrather as a memberof politicised'jati'. Congresswave in northIndia followed the sponsoredpackage of 'liberalisation'- Nextto thecandidates' party, theirjati had same logic of oppositionunity (captured createdan extraordinaryopportunity for some effect on the voting behaviour.In so wellby DavidButler and Prannoy Roy' s reworkingthe establishedpolitical align- social terms the castes that enjoyed the index of oppostion unity) as the 1977 ments.All the threeoffered the possiblity benefits of early entry into modem edu- wave. The Congressand the opposition of creatinga new cleavagethat cut across cation or early politicisationthrough the tried theirold social alliances.Yet there theestablished cleavage structure and thus nationalmovement or bothdominated the weresigns of thenew orderyet to be born. engaging in a new kind of

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