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Development better antidote to votebank politics, says Modi

Votebank politics has been the calling card of all political parties in India, but it's about time to lessen the impact of the scourge to enable the country to realise its dream to become an economic superpower.

That was the broad consensus that emerged at a hotly-debated session on "Leadership to End Vote Bank Politics" at the second day of the India Today Conclave 2008 in New Delhi.

Responding to a pointed and provocative question from India Today Group's Editorial Director Prabhu Chawla, a panel of three speakers - Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Congress general secretary and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah - conceded that all parties are the practitioners of votebank politics in their pursuit for power. But, they sharply differed on the ways to end or reduce the effect of this most divisive and detrimental feature of the Indian democracy.

Narendra Modi, Gujarat Chief Minister
Politics of development does pay electoral dividends, emphasises Modi
While Modi advocated the politics of development as the best antidote to votebank politics, Singh harped on the need for the politics of inclusion to make the parties shun the votebank-centric mindset.

Abdullah was more radical in suggesting that young leadership nurtured with new ideas and thought processes is the only hope for deliverance from the politics based on the emotional slogans of religion, caste and regionalism.

Setting the tone of discussion marked by sharp exchanges between Modi and Singh, Abdullah called votebank politics "an enduring legacy of the divide and rule policy of the British rulers". "We, the politicians, have spread the virus of religious hatred to grab power in last six decades," he said with his characteristic candour.

Touching upon Kashmir's accession to India, Adbullah said the Kashmiris had chosen to join the Indian secularism not under the threat of guns but by the ideals of Mahatama Gandhi. "Unfortunately, we have moved miles away from those ideals, and that has led to mistrust in Kashmir towards the Indian political system. "We have to remove that mistrust and build bridges – not just with the Kashmiris, but also with Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue," he added.

In a veiled attack on the BJP, Singh said votebank politics was result of politics of exclusion practised by certain political parties who raised emotive issues like the Ram temple to divide the voters on communal lines. "The Hindu fundamentalism is breeding the Muslim fundamentalism, and dealing sternly with them can strengthen the communal harmony," he said.

Dwelling on the caste-based reservation in the government jobs, the Congress leader apparently deviated from his party's stand when he said that the time has come to amend the constitution to replace the caste tags with economic criteria for reservation and exclude the creamy layer.

Modi said that votebank politics has become a short cut for certain political parties to grab power when they failed to perform or live up to aspirations of the voters. "The politics of development does pay electoral dividends," he said, reeling out the examples of his successful governance and development projects which, he claimed, had won him the mandate in the 2007 Assembly elections.

Notwithstanding their conflicting views, the speakers were unanimous in expounding on the need to focus on the leadership issues to meet the challenges of the globalised world – a consensus that aptly resonated the theme of the India Today Conclave 2008.

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