There is, and always has been, tremendous interest in the democracy that is India, not just because ours is a nation of diversity and pluralism. It is because the voters, regardless of their level of education or literacy, respond to the issues at hand and exercise their franchise at the time of the elections. And so it was that post Emergency, then prime minister Indira Gandhi was booted out, only to be brought back to office when the squabbling leaders of the Janata Party proved themselves unable to run the government.
In his book, Ballot : Ten Episodes That Have Shaped India's Democracy, Rasheed Kidwai has strung together the small and big episodes, the personalities that shaped our democracy, starting from Indira Gandhi. In this readable, concise account of India's elected and the elections, all bases are covered, even if fleetingly.
The author brings the readers up to date—2017, GST, and the state of shambles the opposition is in. Even if the reader feels a lack of novelty in the content, Kidwai's manner of descriptions is impressive—the rise of Narendra Modi, for instance.
In the afterword, Kidwai mentions Mohan Lal 'Dharti Pakad', a cloth merchant who lost every election in a political career spanning over 40 years. Also mentioned is Kaka Joginder Singh, who holds the record of contesting over 350 elections to the vidhan sabha, vidhan parishad, and for the post of the president of India. Dharti Pakad is quoted as saying that the idea of contesting at all levels of democracy was to usher in the realisation that democracy is meant for one and all, and we should all feel a part of it.
Kidwai, however, has missed the most important player who shaped India's democracy—the voter. She/he has always been the hero of every election the country has faced, and has kept the democracy totally rooted, making it the owners' pride and neighbours' envy.
Ballot: Ten Episodes That Have Shaped India's Democracy
Author: Rasheed Kidwai
Published by : Hachette India
Pages: 156
Price: Rs399