Politicians Didn’t Do Well Before, And They’re Getting Worse

Our analysis is based on the India Human Development Survey (IHDS), 2015. It consists of two cross-sections of a larger sample of families in 2005 and 2012. It has two unique features: it is the only pan-India panel survey till date; In addition, it questions the subjective welfare (SWB) and trust in political institutions, state government, judiciary, police and politicians. SWB is defined as the degree to which a person rates their overall quality of life as completely favourable. SWB is measured as the perceived economic well-being of a household, specifically whether it was in better shape or worse between 2004-05 and 2011-12. Trust is measured in successive levels of confidence: a great deal of confidence, only some confidence and hardly any confidence. Other variables of interest are demographic, socio-economic, mass-media exposure and social networks.

SWB measurement has been controversial. Some are skeptical but not dismissive, while others favor self-reported measures of welfare because they capture aspects of welfare beyond real income, which economists commonly refer to as a proxy for utility. use. Our measure is somewhat narrow, as it focuses on changes in perceived economic well-being between 2005 and 2012.

Beliefs are based on assumptions and are difficult to measure. Since this represents a positive view of government, we should ask respondents through surveys whether they trust (or rely on) government, leadership, and/or specific institutions, such as local authorities and the justice system. ). There is a startling finding of all political institutions (eg: state government, judiciary, police and political class), only the latter is negatively associated with the SWB. In other words, politicians do more harm than good for good. Reasons include a widespread lack of trust in him because of his criminal record, corruption and collusion with the rich and powerful, and unfulfilled promises. These also explain why the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was not re-elected in 2014. There was a lack of confidence in the UPA relative to rural residents in urban areas and slum dwellers. Furthermore, those with a higher level of education, who were considered less easily influenced by political rhetoric, were highly skeptical.

However, social harmony prevailed under the UPA, unlike the regime of the National Democratic Alliance, which was positively associated with the SWB. Muslims, Christians and others reported higher SWB relative to Hindus. Lower castes showed a contrast: where Dalits displayed a negative association, tribals reported a positive association with SWB relative to Other Backward Classes (OBCs). It is not clear why Dalits reported lower SWB, unless affirmative-action policies raised their expectations beyond what could be given.

Mass media is strongly associated with SWB—positively with men listening to the radio regularly, and negatively with women; Positively with regular reading of newspapers by both men and women; And positively with regular TV viewing by men.

Since then there have been many changes under the NDA which can jeopardize democracy and negatively affect well being. Freedom of speech has suffered, as criticism of controversial government policies is often condemned and in extreme cases even imprisoned. Although hate speech against religious minorities is broadcast, even Muslim and Christian places of worship are sometimes desecrated by the goons of extremist politicians.

There are signs that corruption is on the rise and crony capitalism has reached a new high. A series of reports published by Transparency International show the high level of corruption under the current regime. A global report in 2019 ranked India 78th on corruption out of 175 countries. Although this was a slight improvement from the previous year’s rank, it was still worse than the country’s position in 2015.

Criminality among politicians has increased rapidly over the past decade. According to the Association for Democratic Reform (ADR), out of 543 winners in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, 162 (or 30%) had declared criminal cases against them, of which 76 (14%) had serious criminal cases. Among the 539 winners in the 2019 general elections, the share of Members of Parliament with criminal and serious criminal cases rose to 43% and 29%, respectively. Another calculation shows that politicians with criminal records are three times more likely to win elections.

The relentless pursuit of Hindutva as an ideology has played a part in reaching India. It has not only alienated minorities and Dalits, but has apparently also committed unprovoked brutality against them. The behavior of the peasant protesters was also worrying. All this has created a crisis of social harmony in India, in which identity-based differences in well-being of citizens are evident.

In the end, politicians have done very little under the UPA and are likely to do very little under the current NDA regime.

Vani S. Kulkarni and Raghav Gaiha are, respectively, attached to the Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania; and Research Associate, Population Aging Research Center, University of Pennsylvania, USA