Book Review: "The Power Of The Ballot: Travail And Triumph In The Elections" By Vipul Maheshwari & Anil Maheshwari

Indians seem to be 'homoelectionus' in that they love to remain in election mode perennially, knowing well that elections are the bedrock of a democracy which India chose to be more than 75 years ago.

This book starts off by describing how Indians have always celebrated the time of elections, when we analyze the statements made, we realize how true it is, it's the one time where there is this feeling of huge responsibility on every adult's shoulder that they have to make a wise choice in electing their representative and how much the political process is dramatized, they use satirical humor to describe how the political parties influence voters and the ridiculous means they use to get the desired vote bank, they go as far as to say that the entire process and quote 'it gives the average citizen a short-lived sense of importance' and end quote.

Although why would it not make the average person feel important, it's the only time when the disempowered, the poor, the richest and the most influential have the right to vote EQUALLY.

This book talks about the impressive features of our democracy during elections, that political parties in India have surpassed every other country when it comes to electioneering skills, dramatic presentation, oratory skills or mastery of political psychology.

The next move on to describe how we in the past seven decades post-independence have faced issues that have affected the elections, but the age of COVID was still an unprecedented time for everyone. Elections during this time had Four Major challenges.

• Voter Participation
• Vulnerable Health and Prone to sickness
• Operation of the campaign, and
• The legitimacy of the result

They give out several instances where the outright disobeying of rules set by the same people was broken by them.

During this election we also saw a lot of propaganda floating around, social media remained a "potent weapon" for political parties to get votes using emotional spin on daily sufferings. We saw a lot of old news being circulated, and a lot of fake news, some were detected some were not.

The depiction of the tradition in Haryana of weighing candidates against coins is another example of another characteristic of Indian elections. By the 1980s every candidate, including independents with a slim chance of winning, was weighed against coins. The majority of the shows were staged in order to deceive the public. A forward-thinking candidate went one step further and had himself weighed against country booze, which was then served to the crowd. Another contender was pitted against laddoos, which were also passed around the crowd. A senior minister in the Bansi Lal government is also claimed to have been pelted with stones by enraged rural residents.

The book captures the vibrancy and drama of Indian elections while also providing a comprehensive look at the different issues surrounding elections in the country, including criminalization, the role of money, concerns about computerised voting machines, and the need for electoral reforms.

They also talk about the most unexpected reasons as to why people want to contest, such as 'my astrologer predicted my win, so I need a ticket' as absurd as that sound it's the comical reality, we seem to be living in. We tend to ignore the educated and astrology is considered a strong reliance.

They describe these situations in an articulated way where you really feel that sarcasm is not the lowest form of wit. This book is a must-read for every political nut who finds humor as a coping mechanism for the laughable peculiarities that the time of election provides us with. This book is a colorful and humorous representation of the "time of election", and comes highly recommended.

"The book demystifies the jargon, bridges the misleading gap between theoretical law and practical reality, adds sufficient satire, wit and irreverence, mixes it with some lampooning and produces a spicy whole that is appetising, tasty and wholesomely fulfilling," says leading lawyer and Rajya Sabha member Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

"They have recorded the past, present and future of democracy in India in a captivating way. Their gripping anecdotal style makes this book a compulsive read. It has solid content and is a collector's item," says former Chief Election Commissioner S. Y. Qureshi.

Engaging descriptions of the strange phenomenon of ' dhartipakads ', the candidates who love to contest each and every election; cases of persons losing the elections by a single vote (C.P. Joshi in Rajasthan), criminalisation of elections, money flowing like water in elections and failure to contain the malaise, among others, have been discussed with objectivity in the book.

Detailing the case of the EVMs, the favourite whipping boys for losers in the electoral process, the authors recall an Irish proverb, "A man who holds good cards would never say if they were dealt wrong".

The book makes attempts to deal with all the possible aspects of elections such as the move for compulsory voting, e-voting as well as the ongoing discussions about 'one nation, one election', an increasing number of voters preferring NOTA as well as the judicial challenges to the elections.