Election Special

Over the next few weeks, India's elections for the Lok Sabha (Parliament) are being held. I say "over the next few weeks" because the election is held in only a few states at a time. Today, for example, the election is being held in Kerala, Kashmir, Assam, Orissa, etc. I have read that included in today's elections are the states for which there is the most concern about violence. There are a few states (Kashmir and a few of the eastern-most states) where "Naxalites" (far left, also called Maoists) have called for an election boycott. In Orissa (I think) there was actually some violence thought to be an attempt to "enforce" the boycott by scaring people off.

Why is the election held in pieces like this, and how can that work? We were told that they spread out the election like this because the army (or at least some national security force) provides security, and there are not enough to cover the whole country, so they move from section to section with the election. I'm not 100% sure how many different election days there are. It appears that election day is Thursday, and thus that the state group elections are a week apart. Next Thursday is Karnataka's (where I am) turn. HP just today declared no work for that day, to be made up on the next Saturday (sigh). That's actually no particular harm to me; I had no plans. We may go in to work on Thursday anyway if that is possible. We certainly would not do any tourist work that day (let's stay away from crowds etc) and it will be Richard's last full day here anyway.

The reason that they can do this is that they ban polling during the election period. Actually I don't know if they ban polling or publishing the results. In addition, no official results are announced until the entire country has voted.

A few anecdotes relating to the election and security in general: Clearly there is a lot more security in general now than there was last year at this time. I'm sure the Mumbai terrorist event last November, and the subsequent threats have been a large part of this. Even going into HP, the guards at the gate look at our badges carefully, require the trunk to be opened, and use a bit mirror thing to look under the car. That has also been true at the few big hotels we have been into (for lunch or whatever).

In addition, I forgot to mention that on our trip to Mysore, there were some checkpoints on the way into the city with signs saying something like "Election Security; Apologies for Inconvenience". The pulled over cars going into the city and did the same sort of check. Bangalore does not seem to have that sort of thing, at least not on the roads we have driven. And before you ask, Mysore is in the same state (Karnataka) as Bangalore, so the elections there are also not until next week. Makes me think it could be the city government taking some proactive measures, not the national security folks.

You might wonder how I am feeling about all this. To be honest, I can't say that I am 'comforted' by the security. However, it also does not really scare me. Excluding the November attack in Mumbai, most incidents are in states that are always risky and to which I would not go anyway (Assam, Orrisa, Kashmir, etc). I'm being as careful as I know how. I subscribe to a traveler's security email service that HP provides through outside security experts (and they say be careful, but you can safely stay). And on top of everything, there is no wholesale rioting or violence going on; the probability of being affected by an incident, even if one happened in this city, is very low.