Dangerous law

It is interesting — no, not ironical — that chief minister Narendra Modi was not present when the state assembly had passed the Gujarat Local Authorities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2009 making voting compulsory on Saturday. It shows that sincere intentions do not always translate into action.

There is the clichéd slip between the cup and the lip and all that. And this could very well affect the pattern of implementation of this law. This is indeed a practical difficulty and most objections seem to hinge on this alone. The Election Commission, jurists, Modi's opponents like the Congress politicians, grudgingly admit that the idea is good but it is impractical. Everyone seems to think that compulsory voting is a way of promoting, deepening and strengthening democracy. That is where the danger lies.

The idea is bad in itself because it is punitive in nature and this is antithetical to democracy whose foundational principle is freedom.

That is, it implies that you are free to vote and not to vote, you are free to believe and not believe — many, but not true democrats, would baulk at this - in democracy. India's democracy evangelists are willing to pursue any wild idea, including imposing it because they believe in it as an article of faith. It is not surprising that in Taliban fashion they want to impose it on people. In doing so, they are only too willing to trample upon the spirit of democracy.

There is loud lamentation among the articulate classes that there is a need to counter the rising democratic apathy, seen especially in the low voter turnout in election after election. And that somehow and in some way, civic virtues — and voting is one of them — need to be imposed in the old-fashioned tyrannical way. The presumption behind this thinking is that of pushing things from above instead of letting them emerge from below.

Modi's specific arguments need to be countered as well. He thinks that this law will help in increasing voter turnout. A higher voter turn out is always a good thing, if it is voluntary.

Gujarat's chief minister is not averse to authoritarian tactics, something he shares as member of a right-wing political party which is prone to totalitarian thoughts, and this law betrays the tendency. There is a need to declare loudly and clearly that India is a liberal democracy and not a people's democracy of the communist and fascist kind. There is no place in the liberal ideology for mandated civic virtues.