The first law that the 15th Lok Sabha should enact is to confine all elections between the months of October and March. If that means the term of some legislatures needs curtailing or extending, so be it.

The conduct of elections between mid-April and mid-May is the cruellest punishment that can be doled out to those engaged in it - voters, politicians, mediapersons and sundry service providers. The flawed choice of dates has already been reflected in the dwindling numbers coming out to cast their vote. That it plummeted from a reasonable 59 per cent on April 16 when the weather was still just about tolerable, to an alarming 52 percent on April 30 by which time the heat and humidity had become frightening, carries its own tale. This increased somewhat, thanks to sporadic rains, to reach 57 percent for the fourth phase on May 7. On the other hand the State Assembly polls held last November-December in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Mizoram registered a healthy 65 percent turnout. The contrast speaks for itself.

In a stratified society such as India's, the Election Commission also needs to look at another reality. Holding polls in the height of summer automatically results in a skewed turnout. For the underprivileged classes, the heat is largely inconsequential because economic deprivation forces them to perform manual work irrespective of weather conditions. In urban slums, few have electricity; so they sleep under the sky in sweltering heat, hoping for occasional gusts of breeze to bring them some comfort. Thus temperatures are immaterial to them.

Take "posh" South Mumbai for example, from where even flighty socialites are in the fray hoping to register electoral presence. The fact is that 55 percent of the constituency's voters are slum dwellers. That just over 35 percent of South Mumbai's registered voters exercised their franchise clearly suggests that the "elite" sections by and large abstained, many apparently taking advantage of a long weekend to hop across to Lonavala, Alibaug or Goa.

Now, it's all very easy to rave and rant against the "irresponsible" chattering classes. It is true that this section is the first to volubly complain about everything under the sun but the last to do anything even about their own pet cribs. They will happily assemble outside the Taj Hotel in Mumbai holding candles or march to the Wagah border to be jeered at by crypto-Talibanis from across the border. But they will dodge queuing up for an hour to cast their vote, blaming the heat. This cannot be condoned; having failed even to vote the chatterati should hereafter refrain from lamenting the criminalisation or corruption of the polity. But in another sense, a mid-summer poll is indeed unfair to most, particularly the urban middle class, which now accounts for at least one-third India's population and by extension, its electorate.

The urban middle class finds conditions not conducive to going out to vote during the height of summer. One can denounce this attitude till the cows come home, but I believe it is the Election Commission's responsibility to ensure a level playing field and create conditions to maximise voting. If it can deploy a staff of seven to walk 20 km to set up a booth for a solitary voter - a purohit who lives alone in a temple deep inside the Gir forest of Gujarat - or recruit scores of elephants and camels to send polling parties across high mountains and barren deserts so that voting is facilitated for every citizen, surely it can decide to ensure polling only during the pleasanter months of the year.

Although my suggestion might appear facile to some, it is important to understand the skew in voting caused as a result of mid-summer polls. If the urban middle class fails to turn out in large numbers because they are unused to venturing out during hot summer days, it axiomatically means that the outcome gets tilted in favour of the less privileged community's choice. Nothing wrong with that except we all know that sections of this class are more susceptible to casting their vote in return for inducements.

We also know that urban slums are dominated by don-like figures, often depicted truthfully in Hindi movies, whose word is law. These 'dadas' are wooed by political parties and paid off handsomely to ensure their followers vote in a particular way. This may not be the entire story and I am not suggesting that all underprivileged voters are purchasable. But "note-for-vote" is an accepted part of India's electoral culture and no amount of surveillance will eradicate this scourge in the foreseeable future.

I am aware that I could be accused simultaneously of cynicism and elitism, but would nevertheless urge India's policy framers to seriously ponder the arguments for making winter elections compulsory. Since 1984 I have toured India extensively during every General Election and many Assembly elections. Therefore, my arguments are not those of an urban couch potato. In the ongoing General Election I have accompanied political workers to remote constituencies and experienced the difficulty in garnering crowds for heli-hopping leaders. On the last day of campaigning, it is customary for candidates to march through the main street of the principal urban centre of the constituency to canvass support particularly among shop-owners and their clients. Since campaigning ends at 4 pm, the padayatra has to be held at mid-day, because shops don't open before 11 am in most towns.

I was in Rourkela when the temperature shot up to 43 degrees on the last day of campaigning. The BJP's padayatra began around noon and participants were on the verge of collapsing by the time it ended 90 minutes later. Two days later when voting took place, two election officials died in Sundargarh (where Rourkela is located) and neighbouring Mayurbhanj from extreme heat.

Scores have died, been hospitalised and fainted at election rallies or while waiting to cast their vote. A political campaigner told me how horrified she was when three persons fainted one after another at a rally. "I was distracted and felt so concerned for the audience, which had waited in 45 degree heat for three hours, that I quickly wound up my speech and left," she revealed.

Thus both from the standpoint of ensuring maximum turnout by providing a level playing field to all classes of voters and making it less of a torture for rally audiences, political activists and even poll officials, the Election Commission needs to study the timing of the hustings very seriously. After what politicians went through during the 2004 campaign and what they are enduring at present, I am sure our new MPs will enthusiastically endorse any legislation that decrees the holding of polls only between November and March, with some adjustment in school examination dates if necessary.

With snow-bound Kashmir having recorded 60 percent plus polling last December in the Assembly polls, holding elections in winter is no real problem even in the hills. Can we please revive that tradition again? It would be justified from every angle.

Courtesy: www.dailypioneer.com, May 10, 2009