Vox Populi Vox Dei:But To Hear It You Need Compulsory Voting

ROY LICHTENSTEIN- Drowning Girl.

Vox Populi Vox Dei:But To Hear It You Need Compulsory Voting


The Roman axiom had it that the voice of the People was indeed the voice of God. They, along with the Greeks, practiced a fairly direct form of city-state quasi-democracy.

And the Romans, even after the demise of their representational senate, tried to keep their imperial Caesars in check by constantly whispering “remember thou art mortal” in their ears whenever public enthusiasm for their proclamations or deeds got particularly enthusiastic.

But the Romans and Greeks defined “People” rather narrowly; meaning only the original inhabitants of Rome, or Athens, or Sparta as the case may have been; and not the slaves that served them, nor the inhabitants of the vassal kingdoms brought under the yoke of the Pax Romana or the conquests of Alexander the Great.

Unfortunately for us, under the big tent of a democracy based on universal adult franchise, we cannot, legally, constitutionally, or logically, pick and choose amongst our citizenry. Or listen to any section on a selective basis over the wishes of others; at least not on a theoretical basis.

Had we chosen a limited franchise after 1947, a knowledgeable, educated set of voters as it were, we might have also produced an oligarchy or even a dictatorship. But, thank God, we didn’t.

As things stand, we are certainly not meant to favour those amongst our citizenry who tend to be good voters, even block voters, citing the apathy of the others as reason to ignore them.

Of course, this kind of committed voter is what gets politicians elected and they tend to nurture their constituencies for the purpose. But by ignoring the others, who vote for rivals, or those who do not vote at all, the polity as a whole is not served.

This lop-sided representation, would, and does distort the intentions of our founding fathers. It not only mutates the polity into supporters and uninteresting others, but as all political parties imitate each other tactically, ends up working against its long-term survival. The political landscape becomes a morass of vested interest, caste, creed and demographic consideration and results in a complete logjam in governance.

We are perhaps already too far down the road of cynical vote-bank politics, with about half or less of our voters actually voting. To remedy things now, the answer lies in the imposition of universal and compulsory adult voting.

No democracy practices compulsory voting at present, it is true, treating the option with alarm as some kind of infringement of fundamental rights. Though some, like the US, do use a military draft in times of need, and others, like Israel, have compulsory military service.

But then, weighted against the perils, the right to not vote, is not worth upholding. After all, no other democracy of this size is as diverse and populous as India. And none in greater danger from its own centrifugal and fissiparous tendencies, let alone the machinations of its enemies.

China, increasingly being regarded as a rival in the South Asia domination stakes, recently allowed one of its serious think tanks to post an inflammatory article on its website. It suggested that it should be possible, by encouraging domestic separatists and dissidents, and using inimical neighbours such as “Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal”, to break India into some “20 or 30” independent states like “Europe”. The contents of the article written by one Mr. Zhan Lue, was publicised in the Indian media but elicited a predictably muted official response.

By using compulsory voting as a strategic shift in the way we run our democracy, we would, at a minimum, ensure a proper reflection of the Vox Populi. And, it would largely deprive politicians using their committed vote banks, to manipulate narrow electoral outcomes without much regard to the national consequences.

Also, just because every adult citizen is required to vote, it wouldn’t necessarily result in a jingoistic majoritarianism. In fact, recent electoral outcomes, have clearly demonstrated the Indian polity’s decided allergy to extreme political positions, in favour of a steady centrism and a desire to ensure stability, economic growth and national security for all.

Also, compulsory voting if instituted tomorrow, would not iron out all the lumps in the mattress all at once. But it would have a substantial and holistic impact.

Electoral roll manipulations will have to be controlled of course. But this is not as difficult as it seems in these days of super computers. Perhaps the work being done by Mr. Nandan Nilekani on the Unique Identification Number (UIN), will do more than the abortive MAPIN; the proscribed PAN; and even the Voter Identification Cards.

It will take time for compulsory voting to manifest benefits on the ground, and will prove to be more effective in some parts of the country over others. It will definitely cause an upheaval in the way political parties operate; and cause them to overhaul their perspectives. They will have to compete on merits, on competence to deliver, on development issues, rather than by the use of emotive hot buttons including fear and prejudice.

But it is eminently doable, for politicians, political parties and even government bureaucrats to change; just as long protected business and industry in this country learned to cope with global competition, and in many cases, even managed to better it.

We have come a long way from the days of the “Bombay Club” demanding a “level playing field”; and several of the club’s prominent members have actually led the way in making beneficial changes in their operations and methods.

But problems do lie ahead of us. In some places, rapid demographic shifts via unchecked illegal infiltration/ immigration, as cited recently in the Chief Ministers’ Conference, can still affect not only national security, but electoral outcomes too. This particularly over time, as the illegals have demonstrated considerable ability to grab domicile status and wangle their way onto the electoral rolls.

But the key side-effect of universal and compulsory voting, apart from comprehensive representation, will be the automatic moderation of the politics of division and difference.

Development, even competitive development, would become the major focus of political parties instead. And voters would try to assess the merits of competing dream merchants in order to determine which option was more likely to deliver. It wouldn’t be Ram Rajya still, but it would be a good beginning towards that ideal.

(1,049 words)

24th August 2009
Gautam Mukherjee

Published in The Pioneer on 25th August 2009 as Leader on the Op-Ed Page.The article is entitled "Make voting compulsory". It is also published online at www.dailypioneer.com and is archived there under Columnists.