25 January, National Voters Day – Hailing the Great Indian Democracy.

The Miraculously Successful Indian Democracy owes its genesis to the Voters, let us hail them all on the National Voters Day today. Today as we celebrate the 12^th National Voters Day, which is commemorated every year on January 25 – the foundation day of Election Commission of India, which was established on January 25 1950 - to encourage the voters to participate in the electoral process, it is time to look back and commend ourselves – the voters – who have helped make Indian democracy a celebrated global success and may the national voters day help in continuing to keep the Indian democracy thriving with more and more people going out to exercise their all-important voting rights.

The success of the Indian democracy owes its genesis to we the people of India, particularly the main stakeholders of Indian democracy – the electorates, political parties, election commission of India, and everyone else. If we look back in time and see what our status was when we attained our independence, not many would have predicted – including the optimists - that India as a democracy would survive for more than few decades or so. The position in which we were left behind, when we attained our independence, after centuries of colonial rule and exploitation by the British is best articulated, so thought provokingly, by Shashi Tharoor in his famous book “The Era of Darkness –The British Empire in India”. Therefore, it was no wonder that there was no optimism in the future for Indian democracy when we attained independence.  

What the odds were for India succeeding as a thriving democracy, when we attained independence, can best be seen when we juxtapose Indian democracy as a start-up company in 1947. Not even the most adventurous and risk taking venture capitalists would have considered investing in the Indian democracy. More so since there were many dooms day predictions made by the British, an evidence of which can be best seen from the last British commander in chief of the Indian Army, Gen. Claude Auchinleck. He wrote “The Sikhs may try to set up a separate regime. I think they probably will and that will be only a start of a general decentralization and break-up of the idea that India is a country, whereas it is a subcontinent as varied as Europe. The Punjabi is as different from a Madrassi as a Scot is from an Italian. The British tried to consolidate it but achieved nothing permanent. No one can make a nation out of a continent of many nations.”

 

Gen. Claude Auchinleck was not the sole voice to make such dooms day prediction for India, which was a nation within nations with as many as 565 princely states and many more divisions when we attained Independence. Helped by Sardar Patel India was united to carve out its geographical and political map that we see today. Dooms day predictions for India and Indian democracy were dime a dozen in the early years of independence. India could not survive as a single nation, was one common observations by most western observers, let alone becoming a successful democracy. One of the former British official, who witnessed the first general elections in India in 1952 wrote “a future and more enlightened age will view with astonishment the absurd farce of recording the votes of millions of illiterate people.” From such negativity and dooms day predictions, Indian democracy has passed through periods of trials and tribulations to emerge triumphant and today when India is commemorating the 12^th National Voters Day, while commending ourselves and patting us on our back, we must resolve to spread the message of the importance of voting in a democracy and each of us must go out to exercise our democratic rights without fear or favour.

The forthcoming state elections including the elections in the most important state of Uttar Pradesh and that too during the Covid times is a time for us to pay respect to the people’s mandate and hail the electorates, the Election Commission and its paraphernalia that include the faceless hundreds of thousands of foot soldiers of the Election Commission who work tirelessly making the Himalayan task of conducting the elections in India a grand success, time after time and election after elections. Democracy in India has gained from strength to strength and has made much progress over the decades. When we attained independence and declared ourselves Republic in 1950, our erstwhile rulers the British and the rest of the world were highly cynical about our survival, let alone our democracy. From the first elections in 1951-52 to the 17th general elections held in 2019, we have come a long way and our democracy has grown from strength and the world now treats Indian democracy as a triumphant role model. Let us cherish this.

The continuing success of the Indian democracy is borne out from the statement made by our former President Dr Pranab Mukherjee, who praised the voters and the Election Commission for conducting the 17th Lok Sabha polls in a “perfect” manner. He went on to say “If we want to strengthen institutions, we have to keep in mind that institutions are serving well in this country, and if democracy has succeeded, it’s largely due to the perfect conduct of elections by all Election Commissioners starting from Sukumar Sen to the present Election Commissioners”. So irrespective of who wins the coming state elections, we must all collectively respect the result as a true mandate of the voters, who must go in large numbers to exercise their voting rights.

Ever since the era of TN Seshan, in the early 1990s, the EC, like the Indian Army, has arguably become our most respected institution. The respectability of the EC can further be appreciated when we realise that the EC has helped several other nations run their elections better. EVMs have played a significant role in this transition, which has seen a drastic reduction in voting malpractices.

Central to the beauty and vibrancy of the Indian democracy are the Indian electorates - the rich and mighty, the powerful and powerless, the poor and the insignificant, the lettered and unlettered, sheltered and unsheltered, the males, females and the trans gender’s, the believers and non-believers, Hindus, Muslims, Parsis, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Buddhists, religious and non-religious, young, middle aged, old and the very old - all standing as equals, each rubbing shoulders with one another, in the true spirit of equality and humanity first, who make our democracy thrive. While we celebrate the National Voters day today, let us reemphasise the significance of voters for the success of the Indian democracy.

A look back on the percentage of voters who exercised their franchise during the general elections reveal that in the very first general elections conducted in 1952, India recorded an impressive 61.2% of votes and this number continued to be quite impressive hovering around 60% or so (62.2% in 1957, 55.42 in 1962, 61.33 in 1967, 55.29 in 1971, 60.49 in 1977, 56.92 in 1980, 63.56 in 1984, 61.95 in 1989, 56.93 in 1991, 57.94 in 1996, 61.97 in 1998, 59.99 in 1999). The voting percentage fell abruptly to below 50% for the first time in the fourteenth general election held in 2004, to 48.74%.  This was the time when it was realised that efforts are needed to create an awareness among visitors about the importance of voting.  

The first-ever National Voters’ Day was celebrated on January 25, 2011, to encourage more young voters to take part in the electoral process. The then Union government, led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, approved a proposal of the law ministry to declare a National Voters Day. The then information and broadcasting minister, Ms. Ambika Soni pointed observed that new voters, who attained the age of 18, were showing less interest in getting enrolled in the electoral rolls. To address this issue, the Election Commission decided to launch a nationwide effort to identify all eligible voters who reach the age of 18 on January 1 of each year in all polling stations across India. All such new voters were to be enrolled and given the Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) on January 25 every year.

 

The National Voters Day seem to have had some positive impact. The 16^th general election held in 2014 witnessed 66.40% voting and in the 19^th general election, held in 2019, the voting percentage witnessed a record 66.40%, the highest ever in the history of Indian general elections. The theme for this year’s National Voters' Day is ‘Making Elections Inclusive, Accessible and Participative’. I earnestly hope that the National Voters day helps in continuing to increase voter’s participation in the Indian democracy.

 Jai Hind, Jai Indian Democracy and Jai Indian Voters. 

 

National Science Centre, New Delhi turns Thirty - Recalling My Tryst with this Centre

It was on this day 9th January, 1992, 30 years ago,  that the National Science Centre, Delhi (NSCD) was dedicated to the nation by the then Prime Minister of India, Shri PV Narsimha Rao. While wishing the Centre all the very best, I am inclined to recall my close association with the NSCD, where I worked in two innings for nearly 17 years ( August 1988- April 2001 and March 2007 to December 2010) and narrate two interesting  anecdotes that I had the honour to experience. 

The first incident of course relates to the inauguration and its arrangements. The NSCD was successfully opened on 9th January, 1992, by the then Prime Minster Shri Narasimha Rao in the presence of a galaxy of dignitaries including the then HRD Minister Mr Arjun Singh, Prof HY Mohan Ram, Dr AP Mitra, Dr Saroj Ghose and all the founder Directors of the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM).

A couple of days before the NSCD was to be opened, a major goof up had happened at the Siri Fort Auditorium, where the public address system had failed when the Honourable President of India was addressing the gathering. This was all over the news and had caught the attention of Dr Saroj Ghose, the then Director General, NCSM.  Dr Ghose had therefore camped himself in Delhi and was personally overseeing all arrangements for the PM Visit to the NSCD and its inauguration. He had tasked key officers with specific duties and responsibilities and that included yours truly as well. I was tasked with the arrangements of all audio visuals and PA system arrangements inside the auditorium, where the inauguration was to take place. Besides me he had also tasked other key officers with different responsibilities. All of us had burnt our mid night oil and had put in all possible efforts to make the opening a grand success. Dr Ghose was privy to the hard work we had all put in. On 8th January late evening around 8 PM or so Dr Ghose called us to take final stock of the arrangements for the opening of the NSCD by the Prime Minister next morning. 

After all briefing was done with and when we were about to break for the day, Dr Ghose showed a small piece of white paper and asked us if any one could guess what is written on the paper. No one hazarded a guess. Dr Ghose was such a towering personality that even senior Directors and officers like, Mr RM Chakraborty, G Nagarajan, IK Mukherjee, PK Bhaumik, S Goswami , TK Ganguly, Amit Sarkar etc. hardly ever ventured into such acts, so how could the junior mortals do so. When the silence was getting eerie, he announced in his inimitable commanding voice, it is his resignation, which is dated 10th January, 1992. When we were trying to come to terms with the situation, he told us that he is very confident that everyone of us has worked very hard to make the event a grand success and so will it be. However, he said, if anything untowardly happens and some thing or the other fails, he would own up the entire responsibility of the failure and would submit his resignation, which he had prepared and brought to show it to us. He asked us do you want that to happen? We unitedly and with one voice shouted no Sir. Dr Ghose jokingly said, if so keep all your resignations in your pocket ready like what he has done. He then created a relaxed situation for all of us by sharing light hearted moments in the making of the centre including showing that rare face of his to crack jokes to ease our tensions. He left us all by telling that tomorrow’s program will definitely be a great success. We went completely motivated and geared up for the opening. Here I learnt my first lessons in leadership at NCSM - to lead from the front.

The second experience that I wish to share is something which I called ‘ From Denial to Discovery’. Incidentally I presented a paper on this subject to other fellow museum professionals in a workshop presenting a case study of the NSCD and how it managed to double its visitors in the year 2007-08.  

Ever since the opening of the NSCD on 9th January 1992, barring one year, the average visitors to the centre had hovered around 2 Lacs per year until the year 2007-08. In fact the visitors had gone far below 2,00,000, from the year 1999 or so onwards primarily because the backside entry to the centre from the Trade Fare exhibition from Pragati Maidan had closed down. The only time the visitors to the NSCD had come close to 4,00,000 was in the financial year was in 1996-97, when we had organised that famous ‘Dinosaur Alive exhibition’, which was a roaring success and in just 45 days we had receive more than 2 lac visitors and tonnes of gate entry. 

I was posted back to NSCD from Mumbai in  March 2007 and this time I was tasked to be the Director of the Centre. Since I had worked in Delhi before and had also known all the curators and other officers of the centre, I was expecting a smooth run and so it was. Immediately on my taking charge I organised a officers meeting to brain storm on various issues, which could benefit making the centre more popular and  how we could increase the foot falls. I took the liberty that I knew all of them for many years, and announced to them a challenge that I had tasked ourselves with - to double the visitors to NSCD in the financial year 2007-08 and make it 3,50,000.

Little did I realise that being a colleague is completely different than holding a post of a Director to the colleagues. I was in an illusion that my challenge and the brain storming meeting that I had with my colleagues, would have energised them. But then, contrarily, I learnt that there were discussion among the officers that how Tughalaqi and stupid was my target. I got this feedback from those channels, which are dime a dozen in most government offices, who are always there to report such matters, whether you want or not, to scurry favours. I overlooked the feedback and kept speaking again and again about the target and held innumerable brain storming meetings to find ways and means to meet this target. The education officers and curators concerned worked very hard on whatever we discussed to try and translate that into visitors. One such non visitors were students from the Madrassas who came in large numbers, besides of course many others. We had organised meetings with the Maulvis of these Madrassas and highlighted the role played by great Arabian scholars like Alkhworizmi, Al Jebr and others in the field of science and how the Arabs translated many of the Indian works into Arabic and took them to the Europeans. Though the task was quite tough the Maulvis over a couple of meetings found sense in what we were suggesting and ensured that their students visited the NSCD. 

We organised many Principals meet, teachers meet, NGOs meet and also met the top people in the Delhi Government, including the the then CM of Delhi, Mrs Sheila Dixit, and things started falling  in place and the visitors gradually started increasing. The first quarter showed increased numbers which further motivated the team. By the time we ended the third quarter in December,2007  the foot fall had touched 3,00,000. By early February, 2008, we had achieved the target of 3,75000 and when we crossed 4,00,000 by end of February the very officers who had clubbed my vision as tughalaqi, joined hands and made personal contributions to purchase sweets from the market for distribution to all staff members when the visitors to the centre had crossed 4 Lacs. I called this moment a moment of ‘denial to discovery’, a great learning lesson ‘that together we can achieve’ an impossible. The target to double the visitors to the centre was not only achieved but it was surpassed by more than 50,000 as we ended the year 2007-08 with an annual visitors of 4,28,000 visitors. The success was truly and befittingly that of the team and I was just incidental to this achievement.

Ever since that year the NSCD has never looked back ( barring the current Covid times) and has consistently crossed foot falls of 5 Lac every year and even touched a magical figure of 7 Lacs before the pandemic set in. I am so very honoured to have played an incremental role in this spectacular achievement.

So very proud of you all my dear colleagues at NSCD, both past and present.  Wishing the National Science Centre Delhi  a very happy birthday and may the NSCD continue to scale newer and newer heights and be etched  in the hearts and minds of all the people of Delhi, who truly are it’s stakeholders.

Images - Courtesy Biswarup Ganguly and Wiki Commons.

Jai Hind

Jai Vigyan Jai