The Voter As Consumer

Exit polls have predicted a close finish in the Tamil Nadu assembly elections and the outcomes differ from poll to poll. The confusion regarding the winner is likely to be over by Friday noon, and the contours of the new government in the state will be revealed soon after. But the close contest, which is rare in Tamil Nadu, is an indication that there isn't much that distinguishes the two alliances in the fray.There has been a convergence of agendas offered by the two parties leading the coalitions, which reflects a political culture that is unhealthy for democracy in the state.
Clearly, the days of any single political party dominating the electoral landscape of the state seems to be over. Tamil Nadu has seen rapid economic growth in recent times and its impact is felt in social, economic and political relations. Old forms of overarching political loyalties built around regional identity or linguistic pride are crumbling. New platforms centred on more narrowly-defined identities like sub-castes, communities and even region are emerging.
The numerous single caste-centric parties and fringe outfits like Kongu Nadu Munnetra Kazhagam, which claims to represent the interests of peasant castes of western Tamil Nadu, are an indication of this political churning. The established political parties recognise the rapid fracturing of their vote base and have sought to coopt these outfits by striking seat deals with them. The alliances so built are merely coalitions of convenience and there is no ideological glue that binds these parties. That explains the ease with which political parties cross over from one alliance to another in the state.
The absence of any big political idea that appeals to a large cross-section of the population has yielded to a new politics of competitive welfarism. The manifestos of the two major parties, the DMK and the AIADMK, offered a slew of free goods ranging from cheap rice to laptops, mixer-grinders and fans to voters in the event of gaining office. Free or cheap rice has always been a part of political manifestos and helped many a party win elections. So has been the promise of free/cheap electricity and education. But the promise of free consumer items is a new trend, which seeks to subvert the relationship between the government and the citizen.
In the "welfare state" vision of TN parties, voters are seen more as consumers than as citizens during the poll season. These parties approach elections as a business transaction where the voter needs to be wooed like a customer during a festival sale. So, they promise to spend public funds not just on essentials like food, education and other physical infrastructure, but also on a variety of consumer goods. There is, of course, a case for the state to subsidise food, public education and transport. And it's the right of the citizen to expect the government to provide certain welfare measures, at least for the poorest of the poor.
A freebie is not a right but a largesse provided by a benevolent ruler. The freebies politics also reinforces a feudal culture, which maintains a vertical hierarchy between the ruler and the ruled. The ruler, no doubt, gets to spend public resources at his discretion to promote himself. This only perpetuates the cult of the leader, which has been the bane of Tamil Nadu politics since the 1970s. The result is a subtle subversion of election as an occasion to discuss citizen's rights and the record of the government in addressing them, to an opportunity to "bribe" voters. The cash-for-vote trend reported during the election is just an extension of the logic of treating voters as consumers. Needless to say, it undermines the idea of democracy.
This disturbing trend of bribing voters - with cash to consumer goods - is an outcome of the ideological stalemate in Tamil Nadu politics. Both the DMK and the AIADMK are offshoots of a political mobilisation that had a radical social agenda. The Dravidian movement drastically altered power relations within the state and forced even its opponents to take note of the social upsurge and change. However, the radical social agenda of the Dravidian movement didn't run its full course. Influential non-Brahmin castes benefited from the political churning, but the condition of many backward caste groups, especially Dalits, didn't improve much. There is, of course, a micro politics reflected, for example, in the mobilisation of Dalits in political and cultural arenas. The political mainstream has been working hard to suppress, subsume or coopt these radical upsurges.
The freebies culture is a manifestation of the political mainstream's attempt to cover up its failings in making democracy an inclusive experience. It helps avoid a debate on the politics of the rights of individuals and marginalised groups and rides the wave of a culture of consumption to preserve the current conservative agendas. A politics that will confront the freebies culture and expose it for what it is alone can claim to represent the oppositional space in the state. Unfortunately, none of the major political parties seems willing or has the imagination to force a radical shift in state politics. In the absence of that, the state will have a government and an opposition that may derive legitimacy from having participated in the electoral process, but with little understanding of democratic values.