JUST LOOKING at a product advertisement on TV in which actor Om puri asks how we would have made the future if social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter had existed 25 years ago, I bemused what we would be making 25 years later. Flashback: 25 years before, we were a closed economy and modern communication techniques had not been invented then. Now, we are a fast paced growth engine and way ahead in IT and communication. So, can we hope to be a different society altogether 25 years from now?

 

Certainly, we will have to diagnose our polity to get the answer. A quarter century ago, our politics had started to witness mandal and kamandal. In the journey of 25 years, not only did we see the Ayodhya, the shahbano case but also the Gujarat experiment. Today, are we in a different socio-political era? Our politicians squabble in minority reservation vis-a-vis Afzal Guru  and Ajmal Kasab. We have an elected Chief Minister whose statues had to be draped during the period of election and we also have an elected Chief Minister who demands a national holiday on the birth anniversary of few great stalwarts just to cater to its vote bank despite it is known it cannot be accorded simply because by that logic, the national holiday list would not be limited.

 

Today, technological advances are so fast that top minds talking about doing away with the things like email addresses in the backdrop of social networking sites, we in India are still engaged in age-old identity politics. In 2011, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) projected that India would be third largest banking economy by 2035. That implies that within 25 years we would be making leaps and bounds in economic paradigms. With great potential of expansion and urge to newer technology, Indian IT and Communication segment is certainly expected to grow hugely by 2035. But where does our politics and governance stand for modernity and betterment in next 25 years? Since first general elections till recently in 2009, voter turnout has never exceeded 63.75 %, that too in 1957. So, we never have had a government at centre which can be termed truly representative.

 

India has gives voting rights to women since its first election. But, according to latest figures of election commission of India (ECI), only 675 female voters have been registered against every thousand male voters. Also, youth voting registration is very low; in some areas it is as low as 20-25 %. Though ECI has taken a stride to get away with this ill-representative election scenario, but it is not expected to turn the leaf in this decade because it requires a social churning. And ECI, it seems does not have that potential. Also, ECI seems clueless in checking money power. Booth-loot might be a thing of past, but in complexity of things, corrupt and criminals are not and will not be untouchables in imminent future. So, our politics shall remain static in tone and tenor as it was in last 25 years.

 

One may argue that new India demands governance, and it has voted in few states on the basis of development and governance, thus politics is bound to change in years to come. But, it should not be forgotten that these ‘performer’ governments have not changed their approach to polity. So, let me imply that this ‘performance’ owes to overall economic and scientific development. Yes, it may be a total paradox where good economics does not create good politics. But, as always bad economics is good politics. So there is a fear of derailment in the development processes.