The truth that has emerged around the corner vis-?-vis elections in India over the years is that the whole process is farcical by all dimensions of democracy. This truth is complemented by several observations. For instance, television news channels are replete with pre-poll forecasts and analysis around election time which by and large, in the recent past, have veritably complemented the eventual outcome of the polls. This indicates that the overall phenomenon of elections is highly computable and therefore maneuverable, isolating the fracture point that the choice of the individuals grouped as a nation is least contributing, for had it not been so, it would have been impossible to speculate to the smallest degree as to which party would emerge victorious or cave in.
Another important factor that chips in to this debate is that the choices that the people as a nation could make are limited or rather delimited by the choices that are subsequently made available to the people in the form of political parties. Let us consider a typical scenario where there are three political parties contesting elections from a certain constituency and all three have held the reigns of power for different periods of time. The people of this particular constituency are of the opinion that none of the three parties is welcome to hold power again as all three have deviated extremely from their cited manifestos during pre-poll campaigning. There are no new promising political parties in sight except for breakaway factions of the existing parties. What are the people supposed to do? They want to exercise their right to vote but then also know that it would be an exercise in futility. This is the scenario which by and large haunts the poll dynamics of the country.
Furthermore, we have seen that of late coalitions or “gathbandhan sarkars” have been ruling the roost. All these coalitions manage to do during their stint is hurl abuse at each other, drag each other’s dirty linen into the public gaze, attempt to undo whatever little good the other party has managed to do and eventually lead the entire nation towards a future that is enveloped in oblivion. And by far no individual has voted for a coalition!!!
Things are really getting out of hand around here. And to add to the plight of common man there is vote bank politics, rigging of elections, caste politics, and of late the most dangerous of them all, fascist politics. What is the scope of democracy when such detrimental and oblivious game play has swooped ballot power off its heels? Very bleak, I would conclude.

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