'Then, TDP, YSRCP & Jana Sena might ignore real needs'
- IndiaGlitz, [Monday,October 29 2018]
Lok Satta's Jayaprakash Narayan today said that caste-based voting will not benefit the society in any way. He explained how it's a bane.
Politics is about interest aggregation and reconciliation between groups. If voting is entirely based on ethnicity- caste, colour, faith or region-that group has no bargaining power. The answer is building power structures to help voters see their self-interest beyond ethnicity, one of the leading Telugu intellectuals of our times opined.
If voting is predictable and group-based, that group loses in the long term. If all Kammas always vote for TDP, all Reddys for YCP and all Kapus for Jana Sena, they suffer in two ways: the party will help a few elites and ignore needs of real people; other parties will not care for them, JP wrote.
Politics of polarisation is a seductive trap for caste, regional and religious groups. Predictable block voting gives an illusion of political choice and power; it only helps a few politicians, officers & contractors, not real people suffering on account of bad governance, he added.