WHO KILLED THE ELECTION EXCITEMENT ?

With India on the verge of electing the 15th Lok Sabha, will anyone enlighten me on just what these elections are all about ?

To my mind, these have been one of the most insipid contests in memory. If I were to identify four factors that have conspired to take all the excitement out of Election 2009, they would be:

First, the Election Commission's poll schedule which has to rank right up there in the absurdity list. Dragging voting out over a period of a month ensures that the electoral contest ceases to have a "national" air to it. Memories are short, but I distinctly recall that the 1991 election, for instance, was completed in just 3 phases. Have law and order, infrastructure and managerial abilities improved over these 18 years or have they deteriorated ? At that time, the election commission had only one Chief Commissioner. We now have 3 worthies manning the commission (even if some of the members of the commission seem to spend more time in taking pot shots at each other than doing the nation's work !). What does this say about the state of the country as a whole ? Are things moving to a point where the elections would need to be spread out over 10 sessions lasting 60 days within a decade or so ?

Second, the so called "model code of conduct" framed by the Election Commission has taken on so rigid a shape that this, coupled with the inordinately long election cycle, results in a suspension of all governance for several weeks. Being pulled up by the Election Commission for a breach of the "model code" has become so routine that all that this news now elicits from the general public is one collective yawn.

Third, Issues have totally vanished from political discourse today. Every election is about personalities AND issues but in this election, I don't recall any issue of substance being raised by any party.

Fourth, there is an overwhelming feeling in this country now that it doesn't matter. Why ? For two reasons.
(a) With the collapse of issue based campaigning, it is now just a matter of personalities. And who really knows whether the personalities you are voting for today will continue to be aligned to the same personalities they are aligned with today ?
(b) This election would appear to be about collecting seats as a first step. Who forms the government would depend on the wheeling and dealing that go on AFTER the votes are counted and the winners announced.

For those of us who remember the years when we sat up breathlessly into the wee hours of the night to know who won and who lost, keep remembering those years. We aint gonna see those years again !!