“At stake were 4500 seats – about 500 for parliament, the rest for the provincial assemblies. 224,000 polling booths were constructed, and equipped with 2 million steel ballot boxes, to make which 8,200 tonnes of steel were consumed.” This extract from Ramchandra Guha’s India After Gandhi gives a landscape of the 1951 general election, the first in independent India.

After 70 plus years of proclaiming world’s largest democracy, Indian electoral system is in process of adapting to the new normal. Last year with the successful completion of Bihar state elections in middle of a raging pandemic, Election Commission of India (ECI) demonstrated its capacity and versatility to adapt and cope up with challenges in its way. But at same time, a need for reframing the voting system in India cannot be negated.

In global arena, from developed countries like the United States of America (USA) to the developing global south states, there is a constant rethink about voters' perception. The US elections in 2020 bespeak about the ambiguity of electoral politics, as highlighted by David Van Reybrouck in his book Against Elections.

He said, “If you look at how quickly populism, technocracy and anti-parliamentarism are rising, if you look at how more and more citizens are longing for participation and how quickly that desire can tip over into frustration, then you realize we are up to the neck.” This statement, when decoded in context of India, finds its validation to the case.

Election participants nowadays are focusing more on forging alliances, grabbing more and more media space and strategizing with vote matrix. These are in fact becoming the fundamentals for winning elections.

The rooster coup in this scenario is the voters, yes, the common men and women who debate on tea stalls, who join the massive crowd and rallies for the leaders. But when they have the chance to be decision makers, they freeze their chance.

In 2019, Lok Sabha election turnout was 67.11%, which was highest since its inception, but as said by political scientist David Easton, “It’s better to be vague than being irrelevant.” The voters being pivotal to democracy needs awareness for their development.

 Election commission launched SVEEP (systematic voter’s education and electoral participation program) for generating on-ground awareness in masses, but its effectiveness still remains debatable. Electoral voting should not settle with statistics of turnout in the long run but its aim should be to defeat the fatigue of democracy. It is the bi-partisan onus of both the authorities and the citizens to improve the process and to eliminate the modern vices.

To achieve this, Election commission needs multidimensional reforms such as rethinking on compulsory voting as demanded by one of the members in Dinesh Goswami committee (1990) for electoral reforms. In addition, several countries, like the ones in south America including Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia also mandates compulsory voting.

Australia sets a benchmark with 90% plus turnout since 1924 due to compulsory voting with penalty for violation including an explanation for not voting and a fine.

As for the issue of NRI voting as in January 2015, the central government informed the Supreme Court that it had accepted the Election Commission’s recommendation to allow NRIs to vote through e-ballet system or through a proxy, but it settled as a ‘paper tiger’. Therefore, a feasible mechanism for voting should come in place for the NRIs.

The third one is on-ground education on electoral process with SVEEP program which should cater not just voting event but process of democracy should reach to the diverse citizens with vernacular languages and local flavour.

As conclusion on this National Voting Day let’s remember Roald Dahl words, “somewhere inside of all of us is the power to change the world,” and power of more than 900 million Indian lies in their ballot sword.

(The writer is enrolled at Campus Law Centre, Delhi University)