Everybody fumed after Zee News editor-in-chief Sudhir Chaudhary, after the exit polls that gave a clear majority to the Aam Aadmi Party, reprimanded the citizens of Delhi for not being concerned enough about “national” issues. But what many forgot was that after the 2019 Lok Sabha election results, many articulate voices on the Left and the liberal side of politics also fell for the same ‘blame the voter’ syndrome.
When it comes to election results the voter is the punching bag for everybody across the political spectrum.
“People of Delhi don’t care about the Ram Mandir or Kashmir… They are busy in their own personal affairs and are not influenced by larger national issues,” Chaudhary said in his DNA programme.
Chaudhary’s statements expressing discontent with the Delhi voters riled the Twitterverse, with some calling him a communal bigot. But how is Chaudhary’s “meltdown” any different from the Left and the liberals blaming Indian voters for re-electing Narendra Modi and his BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha election? Or former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav lashing out at Uttar Pradesh voters at a press conference immediately after the 2017 election results that gave a clean sweep to the BJP and later catapulted Adityanath?
Following the BJP’s return in 2019, some were sarcastic, asking not to underestimate the “intelligence of voters” who have been known to elect Hitler, Trump, Putin, and Erdogan to power. A few others targeted the Indian voters by calling them “too generous” because they gave their votes to Modi despite him not “delivering ‘Achhe Din’”. Some argued that despite the outcome of the Lok Sabha election, India would remain “battered and undivided”. Others called the voters bigoted and communal on social media.
Also read: Foolish to think Hindus who voted Modi twice will shift due to threat to Muslim citizenship
Easy target
The voter has always been an easy target to tarnish by the disgruntled section which considers the election result to be unfavourable. There is an urgent need to restore some respect to the voter’s choice, agency and intelligence. Instead, blame the politicians.
The Delhi assembly election witnessed dirty politics and deliberate mudslinging by political leaders, who steered away from issues that are of interest to the voters – water, electricity, public transport, education.
The poisonous campaign deprived the voter of any insight into the policies of the political parties and their plans for the city’s development. From being targeted as “communal and bigoted” after the Lok Sabha election to now being labelled as “anti-national” and “lazy” after the Delhi assembly election, not much has changed for the Indian voter.
Also read: You can’t cancel Modi, RSS: Why US-style identity politics won’t help Indian liberals’ fight
Media also to blame
Indian journalists, especially the TV news media, must share a part of the blame. The media aided Delhi’s unscrupulous campaign by unwittingly allowing communal chants and divisive political parties to take centre stage and dominate the election discourse. All important, voter-related issues were buried under BJP leaders’ loud calls to “shoot the gadaar (traitors)” and Arvind Kejriwal’s invention of a safe, new kind of nationalism or kattar deshbhakti. The media ignited tensions by scrutinising chants by minor party members and by playing into fake news.
Blaming the voter for the outcome is lazy on the part of both liberal and Right-wing voices. Question the state of a voter’s choice and not the merit of his/her decision. Attacking the voter for not producing a result favourable to one’s inclination is a futile exercise.