Issues That Have Fallen By The Wayside In This Election Cycle

With six phases of the Uttar Pradesh elections over and only one round left, the hyperbolic rhetoric is slowly waning. Over a month, we witnessed a plethora of issues discussed on the UP elections ranging from Narendra Modi to Akhilesh Yadav, demonetisation to electricity and law and order to graveyard. Soon, the election results will be announced and news channels will trip over themselves in discussing why and how the results were the way they were. But in all the noise, there are some issues from prior elections that were overlooked.
1. Ganga

“Na mai aya hu, na mujhe laya gaya hai, mujhe to maa Ganga ne bulaya hai” were Modi’s famous words when he started his campaign for Varanasi. In fact, he created a separate ministry under Uma Bharati for cleaning the Ganga. While the ambitious Namami Gange project is doing wonders on its website, the site of the river is still awaiting these changes. That the Ganga would be as clean as the Sabarmati was an important election promise of 2014 but seems markedly absent this time around. To a state predominantly dependent on the Ganga for its agriculture and economy, apart from minor mention, it has failed to be a part of the larger election debate.

2. Women’s empowerment

In 2012, then-Home Minister, Sushil Shinde had remarked that public memory is very short. Though he was referring to the frequent scams under the UPA government, we should not forget the Times Now interview where Rahul Gandhi claimed that Women’s empowerment was a key platform in 2014. However, according to an NDTV report, only a tenth of the candidates of major parties in the Assembly elections are women. And this election season, where the safety of women and law and order have been the hot debate topics, it is a bit unfortunate that representation in the Assembly is so skewed and the media has failed to ask our politicians why UP continues to have more netas than netris.

3. Triple Talaq

Almost every BJP politician was asked by the media why the party had zero Muslim candidates and reams were written and spoken on how Mayawati fielded 97 Muslim candidates for BSP and how the SP-Congress alliance would consolidate Muslim votes better. But the issues concerning Muslim reforms were paid only lip service. Triple Talaq, which gained prominence after some social activists raised the issue and BJP supported abolishing the practice. Many custodians of Muslims in UP did not have a clear stand on the issue. And in no prominent interviews with SP and BSP leaders was this issue raised. Triple Talaq which could have been a key issue failed to take off.

4. Muzzafarnagar and Dadri riots

The 2002 Gujarat riots were an election issue not only in the 2002 Assembly elections in Gujarat, but also in 2007. Not just that, they were important political issues in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections and in 2014. But even after Muzaffarnagar, Dadri, Meerut, the Kairana exodus and at least 605 incidents of communal violence that took place in UP after 2012, they have not been prominent in UP election debates. Akhilesh has not been grilled in the same way as Modi was after the Gujarat riots. Considering 2002 was an exceptional case, given the scale of riots and its implication on national politics, yet by staying fairly mum on Akhilesh, the media was not being accountable.

5. Insurance Schemes

PM Narendra Modi, who is the face of the election campaign in UP has been repeating his success stories to mesmerised audiences and counting his achievements including his neem coating urea, gas subsidies, Ujjwala Yojana, surgical strikes, and demonetisation. Yet the one thing he is surprisingly silent on is the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana. According to reports, around 125 million citizens have enrolled for these schemes. given that the PM is known for his marketing skills, it seems mysteriouss that he is not even paying lip service to these in the rallies. Perhaps he plans to unleash them in 2019?

The setup of democracy is such that elections are the time when people get to voice their opinions and also in the age of increasing media penetration, gives the media an opportunity to set the agenda. Political parties try to set the narrative according to their political agenda, but it is the duty of the media to highlight and bring to limelight the issues that concern the common public. And it was vital to debate them right now during the election season, because as soon as the elections are over, no one is going to talk about roads, electricity, cleanliness or hygiene. And once again, the noise channels would be return to broadcasting the same old debates with the same old faces and the people’s plight will take a backseat until the next elections, whenever they are.