Disclaimer: I am sorry, this time round I shall
not be able to tell you whether I am being serious or comical? I myself don’t
know.
In 1907 Wilhelm Von Osten, a German mathematics teacher demonstrated the numerical skill of his
horse Hans - Clever Hans as it later came to be known throughout
Germany- and caused a minor sensation.
But diligent scientific investigations proved that the horse was keenly observing
his trainer and responding to the cues
from his body language to nod at the correct answer. The Clever Hans syndrome had its brief period
of fame, but it did provided an
important methodology in conducting animal intelligence experiments. Observer-expectancy effect is widely used in studies in animal cognition.
Every now and then the
Indian voters vote one way or the other and The results naturally go in favour of one party/ group or the other. Predictably the results
throw the commentators, analysts, strategists and
believers in democracy into
raptures. A lot of inspirational
verbiage , heavy jargon and statistical
tools like bar graph, pies , chart and scatter diagram are all yoked by violence
together to establish, scientifically , the wisdom and the perspicacity of the voter.
The act of unseating the ruling charlatan is taken
as an evidence of the maturing of democracy just as
installing him five or ten or fifteen or
twenty years earlier had then been declared an act of great maturity. It seems that the primal state
of immaturity is the default position of the Indian voter, the state of equilibrium
, the state of maximum entropy to which
having shown its maturity on election eve,
he quietly retires.
The
fact of the matter is that the voters’ choices are no more intelligent than
that of Clever Hans or the roadside fortune telling parrot. The high
costs involved and the mammoth organising capability required to make an all India presence , has
already narrowed the choice of acceptable alternatives to the two major
political alliances. The paid media has ensured that you don’t know a
thing about them for sure and you have to vote by blind instinct or prejudice. Those who know both could describe them only in the memorable phrase of Stalin: “they
are both worse .”
The voters
respond to certain inducements,
blandishments or subliminal appeals. Loan waiver, free electricity, free
laptop, free liquor, freedom to smooch in the Echo Park or Sanjay Gandhi Udyan,(
a great vote catcher among the young in
Bihar sometime back ) Mandir , Masjid, Mandal , Kamandal, caste , community, are some sure fire formulas. At the end of the day long association with power has
the same effect as living in the same underwear for long:
they both stink and need to be changed, purely in the interest of hygiene. Nothing clever or exciting about
that!.If you take elections for what they are –
a farce, a masked ball , a carnival,
– you can enjoy them as the most
memorable show on earth .“
‘Free elections’’, says the maverick thinker,
commentator and polemicist Slavoj Zizek,” involve a minimal show of politeness
when those in power pretend that they do not really hold the power, and ask us
to decide freely if we want to grant it to them.” For full
participation the pretense must be taken very seriously. You must prattle
in your dunce’s cap pretending it be a crown. (I remember a
line of
a song I heard as a chid: Mat kaho ki sir pe topi hai, ye kaho
ki sir pe taj hai.’ My generation was indoctrinated
in this business of topi pahanna and pahnana as children). The would be tormentor/ oppressor/ excoriator would
appear behind the mask of a servant,a
chowkidar , a benefactor , a reformer , a paupper and
beg for your vote. The
electorate must plays
his role of prince with all the seriousness at his command and having granted the supplicant- pauper- his vote be prepared
to be heard no more. Those , like me who can see the tree for the wood enjoy
democracy as a farce, and
those many who don’t , suffer
it as
tragedy.
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