Politicians are more astute than we give them credit for

Most of us in India, and I mean the educated middle class here, often see politicians as greedy thugs, who over promise and under deliver, and wish to grab what is not theirs. We are perhaps justified in holding this view, if their increasing level of arrogance over the last decade, as depicted in the media is anything to go by. A closer scrutiny might be in order though.

Politicians in India have been exceptionally astute in reading the minds of their constituencies. Across most of the time that India has been independent, they have been exceptionally good at making exactly the noises that the voter wanted to hear. The Indian voter is changing; gone are the days of the illiterate farmer who got swayed by empty promises of 'garibi hatao' decade after decade. In the last few years, voters have started to punish the politicians who have not honoured their promises.

Politicians are not blind to this change. Sure, there are some who, refused to wake up to the new reality and by insisting on playing by the old rules, paid the price. The Congress Party, in trying to play the same old Maai-Baap sarkar focused on doling out alms, missed the plot completely in 2014. The crowd before them was not seeking a waiver on their loans, it was comprised of youth who were  concerned with opportunities not alms. The people who won this election are the folks who promised what the electorate wanted to hear.

Gurcharan Das, an avowed India optimist, has been writing in his column for about a decade now, that the face of politics will change in this country when the middle class numbers about half the population. He argued that the literate middle class will hold the electorate accountable like no previous populace has. The days of politicians making empty promises and counting on short public memory are fast fading. The average literacy rates in India is now at 74% and people are keeping track of the promises their representatives made five years ago. The overwhelming anti-incumbency voting that is now becoming the norm is evidence.

This is what gives me hope. Politicians are selfish and self serving. But the free hand of the market is also coming into play at the right time. Unlike the capitalist who became a has been by insisting on producing scooters that need to be tilted every morning, evening and night, the politician today cannot count on the licence raj to cover his rear. He needs to deliver what his customer wants. Or pay the price.

Politicians are more astute than we give them credit for, and therein lies hope for this country.