Amdavadis forget voting rights, talk about parties

In a unique classroom assignment, aimed at attempting to figure out "Why Ahmedabad Votes", students of Ahmedabad University found that most people talked about political parties, justifying their love or hatred for those rather than voting rights. To ascertain the mindset of people about politics and elections, for the past few weeks, 12 second and third year BBA and BCom students visited Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad west Lok Sabha constituencies including Asarwa, Dudheshwar, Shahpur, Shahibaug, Khanpur, Maninagar, Vejalpur, Prahladnagar and Jamalpur, among others, to interact with people and local party leaders about the upcoming elections.

Through their field work, the students not only found out about the urban-rural divide, but were shocked to discover that the "educated" lot in urban areas was unaware of their local leaders as well as issues whereas for residents in other areas, issues were not so much of a concern.

"More than giving reasons about voting and not voting, people talked about the parties and justified their love and hate among the parties," said Dharmit Mehta, a third year BCom student.

Interestingly, majority of police personnel felt that wages and raises were based on inflation during the Congress regime which was not the case later.

Speaking about the same, professor Sarthak Bagchi from the School of Arts and Sciences said, "More than what they found, for me, it was important for them to understand the public pulse. I think students of Social Sciences should also learn to see and experience society closely, on the ground. While they may have certain everyday experiences around elections and political happenings, it is important for them to go out onto the field and experience how campaigns are held and organized. How voters perceive leaders and what the different considerations are for voters while deciding on their voting choice. They went to localities in the city, which they had never seen or heard of like Juhapura, Jamalpur Khadia, Shahpur, etc." Trained as a political scientist from the University of Hyderabad, Bagchi is a keen observer of electoral politics, party systems and state politics in India.

Sharing his experiences, Mehta added, "We found that people reasoned voting as a fundamental right but later, they went on to talking about party preferences. Instead of justifying the positive aspects of a party, they emphasised on justifying the hate for another party."

He further said, "For me, the biggest learning was to interact with the diverse population and at the same time, get different responses about the same topic. Most still did not understand the actual meaning of democracy and the approach towards voting."