Have we lost the vocab of hope?

Pritish Nandy
27 March 2014, 01:04 PM IST

Every election has its own vocabulary. Words that are carefully chosen to reflect the hopes, dreams and aspirations of those going out to vote. Politics taps into that vocabulary and creates memorable slogans for change and transformation. Few of those promises are ever fulfilled.

But the vocabulary remains, a reminder of what we could have been if only politicians kept their word. History is a series of such missed opportunities that we lament in retrospect. They remain as keepsakes to inspire us long after the elections have come and gone, as dreams we had once dreamt and then cast aside in the hurly burly of everyday politics.

The weirdest promises are made at election time. The most bizarre abuses are coined then. The most pompous claims are made. The biggest and most shameless lies are told. Curiously, we are expected to believe them. If we cannot trust our politicians in normal times, how are we expected to believe them at election time when, we all know, truth's the biggest casualty?

Yet we pretend to do so because every election is a time to reassess our achievements, reaffirm our goals as a nation. What we want to be. What we want to be remembered by history as. What we eventually achieve is not evaluated. The mark sheet of history is signed by the future. We are only judged by our power to dream for that eventually defines what we want to be.

The funny thing is it's not truth the electorate is looking for. Long before the dates are announced, people make up their minds who they want to vote for or, rather, against. I would like to believe 90% votes in India are cast against a party or a person, not for anyone. So, those who spend a fortune on campaigning are wasting their time and money. It's simpler, quicker and smarter to just pick on the frailties of your opponent and go for it. Even the editorial coverage will come free.

The job is easier because people are ready to believe the worst of our politicians. Long before a DNA test proved Rohit Shekhar was ND Tewari's son, India knew it. Months before the world media broke the Agusta Westland chopper story, India knew that all such defence deals have a dark, sleazy underbelly of corruption and crime. In fact, we even know who the arms dealers are, who they share their bribes with.

Long before media broke the story that corporate India was backing Modi, everyone knew the Congress was in the doghouse. Individual candidates may still get some funding from old patrons but that's more out of compassion than the desire to see them back in power. Big business houses may still pretend to donate to everyone. But we all know exactly who each one is backing, and why.

The people who vote know everything. They are cunning, perceptive, incorruptible. Even when they take money or booze or free saris and TV sets, they go and vote as they want. Their mind is made up long before. Spend billions if you want. It won't make the slightest impact. It will get you some publicity, true and you can bask in its warm sunshine for a while. But the outcome will be the same.

As far as vocabulary goes, this election till now has been awfully dull. It's being fought from the trenches, we are told. But not a single exciting idea of India has emerged from it, not a single evocative phrase has been coined that will be remembered. There were more verbal aerobics in earlier elections even though there were no hashtags then. No likes either.

I guess the nature of electioneering has changed. I hear some very clever communication experts from all over the world have arrived to bring American-style campaigning into play. Ticketed dinners are happening. Movie stars have not only promised to join the campaign; they have actually joined the fray. Social media is no longer a hidden persuader. It's out in the open. And so is the wooing of the business frat, till now a heresy in our socialist politics.

Even parties like AAP are saying they are not against capitalism; they are fighting crony capitalism. That's a clear shift. And the BJP, leading by a mile in all opinion polls, has promised that in their regime the right will have the right to be heard. Only the Congress is still trapped in Jurassic Park, hoping its lack of words will be more than compensated by their skills in post election deal making.

Interestingly, the official Scrabble Dictionary updates this year after a decade. Fans are fighting over which new word will enter. Selfie and and hashtag are running neck to neck while Miley Cyrus has made the twerk impossible to ignore. But the amazing evolution of language has bypassed the world's biggest election. Calling someone a shehzade or staking a claim to aam aadmi is just too banal. As for Snoopgate, it has long lost its sting.