The nation’s aam janata, preoccupied with expressing and exchanging their views, some in formal circles and the rest in gossip circles, on this’n’that of the Parliamentary polls held from the first half of April to the second half of May this year, may have gone back to their daily chores while political commentators, both seasoned and minnows, are busy as ever writing articles exposing the underbelly of the stuff the elected members are made of, thanks to the hospitality of the country’s print media, facilitating aam janata to indulge in more exchange of all that are crossing their minds. The spend on the event, both the valuable time that would have been otherwise spared for welfare activities benefiting the country as well as its masses themselves and funds drawn from the treasury as well as from sullied pockets of the vote-seekers, seems to have been described as necessary evil, which the auditors of public expenditure may have to call it infructuous, given the none-to-worthwhile outcome of the polls. The Democracy’s constitutionally provided procedures for administering the country have been complied with and one can only introspect in retrospect.
Over the decades since 1951 election of Members to the nation’s first Parliament, the Election Commission of India has pursued many thoughtful measures, ostensibly to trim the rough edges of the once-in-five-years event, among which a) Model code of conduct and b) Option to the voter not favouring any of the contestants stand out. More measures attributed to the independent authority are in the boiling pot as it were.
