Kerala And The Battle Over Setting The Election Discourse

K N Harilal

ELECTION battles are also battles over setting the agenda of issues to be deliberated. Election to the 15th Lok Sabha has not been an exception. All major forces in the fray have been trying to set the agenda pushing the issues that they wanted the people to ponder over. The set of issues that the Left parties focused on and wanted the nation to debate is well known to be described here in detail. Not only the Left, but all those who wanted to preserve and strengthen secular democratic and anti-imperialist legacy of the freedom struggle wished that the voters consider the deviations from such values effected by the UPA government and its NDA predecessor. It is such grave threats to the nation, arising mainly on account of the pro-American turn in foreign policy and the shift towards neo-liberal economic policies that deserved the most to be discussed in these elections. These issues have important ramifications for the present as well as the future of the nation and its people.

But, unfortunately, Congress as well as the BJP have been trying to woo voters either by projecting trivial and irrelevant issues or by whipping up parochial and other disruptive passions. Nowhere has this attempt to hijack the election agenda been more visible than in Kerala. The United Democratic Front (UDF) led by the Congress party, and assisted by an assortment of communal organisations as well as the mainstream media, has done its best to sidetrack the attention of the people from the core issues. It was embarrassing for the UDF to get into a debate over the pro-American turn in India�s foreign policy. It was equally inconvenient for them to fight the elections over the neo-liberal economic policies. Interestingly, in spite of the incumbency argument they were also reluctant to join a debate over the performance of the state government. It must be for this reason that the UDF in Kerala desperately wanted to hijack the agenda of election debates.

The UDF strategy has not been anything new. It was focused on breaking the unity of the people over the core issues. As they have done with varying record of success in the past, this time again the game was to divide the people on communal lines. They have succeeded in bringing together almost every communally oriented organisation in the state against the Left and Democratic Front (LDF). These organisations are known for their pro-UDF politics and in most elections they ended up supporting UDF either openly or indirectly. But, interestingly their ability to distract the attention of the people from the core issues and divide public opinion on communal lines varied significantly from one election to another. This time around the communal organisations in the state hardly had any excuse to rally people in support of the UDF and against the LDF. They had to virtually manufacture such divisive issues from thin air.

DEVELOPMENT WITH SOCIAL JUSTICE

There is no section of the people in Kerala that had not benefited immensely from the development and welfare measures of the state government. In fact, the LDF government in Kerala has adopted a two-pronged approach to development and welfare that extended appropriate support for both sunrise and sunset segments of the economy and society. The government extended proactive support to the new areas of growth in the economy such as information technology and tourism. But this did not deter it from supporting agriculture, traditional industries, and petty commodity producers belonging to various sectors. Nor did the government compromise on its commitments in the area of social security and welfare. This harmonious approach, which balances growth development and social justice, has already started producing encouraging results. Achievements such as the turnaround in the agricultural sector, ending of farmer suicides, remarkable improvement in the performance of the state public sector units, record growth in the mobilisation of fiscal resources, all-round improvement in fiscal indicators, and broadening of the social security network may be mentioned for illustrating the point.

The Kerala budget for 2009-10 can be considered as a summary statement on the direction of change ushered in by the LDF government. It is best described as a model for making counter-cyclical budgets. Governments all over the world are trying to come out with counter-cyclical budgets and stimulation packages. What makes the Kerala budget stand apart, however, are the left and democratic positions that it upholds. In many instances, counter-cyclical stimulation packages are being used as an excuse to divert public money for favouring those who were primarily responsible for the crisis. What is more objectionable is the tendency to convert the so-called stimulation packages into weapons of oppression against the working people. The stimulation packages are being used to manufacture consent for introducing wage-cuts, labour saving techniques, large-scale retrenchment and other exploitative manoeuvres. Incidentally, the first two stimulation packages announced by the government of India hardly had anything to offer the working class, the peasants, and the rural people in general. But, it had quite a lot to offer to the finance capital. In sharp contrast, what the new Kerala budget presents is a people�s alternative. Strengthening of the social security network on the one hand and stepping up of public investment, with a view to enhance employment, income, production and productivity, constitute the two clearly defined elements of the two-pronged strategy of the budget. In the case of social security framework, Kerala is in an advantageous position compared to most other states, thanks to the redistributive policies of the past. The budget proposals are intended to refurbish the social security system of the state so that it is better equipped to face the challenge of economic recession. A major announcement in this regard, which will help revamp the public distribution system of the state, is to provide ration rice at Rs 2 per kilogram to all below poverty line families. All SC and ST and fishermen families will be covered under this scheme even if they do not come within the BPL category. The minimum pension under various welfare schemes, which was raised in the previous budget to Rs 200 per month, is enhanced further to Rs 250. Besides this the government has decided to write off arrears outstanding against house loans for weaker sections benefiting around 41,500 families. These and other welfare-oriented measures initiated by the new budget should be seen along with the comprehensive health insurance programme, covering all BPL families and other eligible sections, launched recently in the state.

COMMUNAL PROPAGANDA

While the presence of the LDF government benefited most segments of the population, the mass organisations of the Left have been incessantly working for the cause of the people, regardless of the caste or community to which they belong. But, this did not prevent the communal organisations from blowing up non-issues with a view to divide people and distort public opinion. An illustrative instance in this regard has been the attempt to characterise the CPI(M) and the LDF as anti-religion and anti-faith. The history of such campaigns goes back to the days of the first communist ministry in the state and even before. The same wine in the very same bottle was served in these elections too. Some sections of the church and certain other communal organisations belonging to other religious groups were in the forefront of the campaign. The misinformation campaign was built around certain progressive initiatives of the state government in the educational sector. One of the election promises of the present state government has been that it would check commercialisation of higher education in the state, especially in the field of professional education. The initiatives of the new government in this regard had obviously given rise to conflicts with the government on the one hand and various communal groups that run the education business on the other. There were concerted efforts to characterise the government initiatives to check the evils of commercialisation of education as measures against certain communities and religious groups. But such propaganda did not click beyond a point because the State initiatives in the educational sector were purely secular in all their dimensions. The beneficiaries of State intervention were students at large regardless of caste or religion to which they belonged.

Another building bloc of the communal propaganda has been the campaign against reforms in the school educational sector. Communal groups in Kerala, which maintain a strong presence in the educational sector, have always been against government intervention and control in the sector. The new government�s efforts to reform the school education sector, by way of introducing comprehensive changes in the curriculum and teaching methods, were either misunderstood or misinterpreted as efforts by the communists to establish their hegemony over institutions of learning. An interesting instance of the communal build up was the campaign against new textbooks, which was used to rally almost all communal groups in the state against the LDF government. Even the so-called textbook campaign has fizzled out in the end because it was essentially built on half-truths and big lies. Nonetheless, when the elections came all such failed campaigns and redundant slogans were reinvented to divert the attention of voters from real issues. It is in this backdrop that we emphasise the importance of the battle over setting the agenda of election debates. It is not that the UDF had its way in setting the agenda. On the contrary the election campaign in the state has witnessed strong resistance against the UDF move to fashion the election discourse. The LDF bid was to make the campaign stay focused on the core issues outlined in the manifesto of the Left parties. It also attempted to highlight the achievements of the LDF government. We may have to wait till counting of votes to see whether the UDF bid to capture the election campaign could be convincingly defeated. Nevertheless, reports on polling patterns from different regions of the state suggest that the LDF would repeat the recent history of convincing victories over its rival.