India’s big national election is underway. When you have nearly 900 million voters, an average turn-out rate of some 70%, and a history of elections being disrupted by violence and vote-rigging, you hold the elections in stages to try to ensure a peaceful, open process in which every voter who wants to vote gets to vote. That means massive oversight by the police and a huge number of “volunteer” civilian election monitors. Voting takes place over a period of five weeks.
All 542 seats in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the bicameral Parliament, are being contested, something that happens every five years. The 2019 election is being seen (this is my interpretation) as something of a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity and thus on the popularity of his Hindu nationalist BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) — something like the US midterms having served as a Trump-test.
These BJP flags sport the lotus symbol. In Hindu and Buddhist symbology, the lotus flower represents enlightenment — its roots are in the mud, but it blooms in purity on the surface of the water. To me, it is odd (and disquieting) to see it used as a political symbol. But hey, that’s Hindu nationalism for ya!
The main party in opposition to the BJP is the Indian National Congress, the party of Nehru. The most prominent Congress politician currently is Congress President Rahul Gandhi, who is Nehru’s great grandson, Indira Gandhi’s grandson, and the son of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi (assassinated by the Tamil Tigers in 1989) and former Congress President Sonia Gandhi. (Got that? There will be a short quiz at the end.) His sister Priyanka, who seems to have a lot more pizazz than he does, supposedly sounds just like her grandmother Indira and has recently formally entered politics. (Which means, as far as I can tell, that the newspapers report on what outfit she wore to the latest rally.) I actually don’t have a picture of a Congress campaign flag because there aren’t a whole bunch of them around here. But guess what color they are? Orange, green and white! I asked someone “Why do all the parties use the same colors?” and then I thought, “Oh. Red, white and blue, never mind.” Congress is not that popular in West Bengal because they have been eclipsed by a Congress-offshoot called Trinamul Congress. At any rate, both Congress and Trinamul Congress are anti-BJP.
The CPI(M) was founded in 1964, an offshoot of the CPI founded in 1925 (or so). They were elected to office in West Bengal in 1977 and governed the state for over 35 years until the voters threw them out on their keisters about five years ago. (I pass a “Naxalbari, 24 km” sign every morning on my way to campus — that’s where the Maoist Naxalite movement started in the 1960s.) No one seems to think the CPI(M) has much in the way of “legs” anymore, but they still “do their thing” (as the picture above attests) and provide some colorful opposition to the BJP in particular.
There was a loud — a very, very, very, very loud, albeit very small — campaign rally across the street from my flat last night (I thought it was happening in my bedroom, but I checked and it was across the street). I was afraid the same thing might happen tonight, but I found out that all electioneering has to stop 48 hours prior to the election. And polls open about 36 hours from now. I’m excited to see the polling itself — no mail-in ballots in these parts, you have to show up! Voting will be complete on May 19, counting and results announced on May 23.
(Katie, I will be watching to see if the campaign flags get taken down after elections are over… I have a guess…)
A Northwesterner in North Bengal 
Hey! I sat next to Rahul at the restaurant above The Good Earth and I’m sure I took you there. I didn’t notice him until we left but I could feel importance vibing from his direction. And I shook Modi’s hand in very uncomfortable shoes. I wanted to see Obama and take Michelle shopping but they didn’t come out.
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Yes! So that means I sat in the same restaurant where you sat next to Rahul! Whose shoes were uncomfortable, yours or Modi’s? Or did Modi have uncomfortable shoes on his hand?
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Also, Michelle missed her chance!
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Mary, thanks for the election primer. What an exciting time to be in India! Keep us posted!
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Send a pic of the lines once they start!
There has been fascinating coverage here, people hiking in three days to collect the vote of one citizen working in some nature reserve. Or atop a mountain, don’t recall which. We think of India as being so crowded, it was interesting to read how isolated some people are. Thanks for the interesting visuals. Here is some US coverage: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/10/world/asia/india-election-modi-gandhi.html
Is Modi popular where you are? What do people think of him? (Do people like to talk about politics?)
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People don’t talk too directly about politics with me — I am not sure why, maybe it is not quite the thing in polite company (and you know how polite I am…). So I find myself trying to interpret where people stand on particular candidates based on subtle comments. In general, I think party affiliation tends to be more fluid than in the US — more people are willing to go along with whatever party is in power at the time — that’s my sense.
Another thing — West Bengal is slightly different from many other states because the Trinamul Congress, led by Mamata Banerjee, is dominant here — she is very anti-BJP and anti-Modi — one of Modi’s main antagonists. Mamata Banerjee (called “Didi” here — “Elder Sister”) has won UN acclaim for some of her programs to support the “girl child” (to use the local phrase) — things like giving bicycles to girls for plying back and forth to school (again, using the local vernacular!) and providing something like 25,000 rupees to families of girls for their marriages (providing they are 18 and have finished (I believe) class 10, which is basically like graduating from high school). Dowry is illegal in India (of course it still happens among more traditional and conservative families) so the 25,000 is not “dowry,” but is intended to prevent families from bankrupting themselves for weddings/marriage and as incentive to keep girls in school.
As for people being isolated — yes, there is a lot of empty space here! It is not at all as densely packed as you might think. It’s more that the places that *are* densely packed are densely packed! (If that makes sense.) I suspect that the stuff about trekking three days to capture one person’s vote is a bit of a PR thing — to encourage people to vote and to try to underline how seriously the government takes it — partly aimed at ensuring that the vote once it happens is accepted as legitimate. (Another reason for the very prominent police presence at the polls and regarding everything related to the elections.)
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