DETERMINANTS OF VOTING BEHAVIOUR IN INDIA

In a multilingual,multi cultural democratic set up like India,voting behaviour is dictated by a plethora of complex issues.From time and again it has been proved that political parties in India can not rely upon any particular factor to win the trust and confidence of the voters.Such is the complex nature of the voting behavior that even the best of the psephologists or social scientists or even genius politicians failed to read public psychology on numerous occasions.Below is a summary of the determinants of such perplexing electoral psychology.
Caste has been an important factor in Indian politics.Though recent trends show that its impact is more prominent in the state level politics,it plays a crucial role in shaping up the policy of the governments.Wooing a specific caste has been the principal agenda of many a politicians.This has been a retrogressive character of Indian politics and has so far been playing a divisive role.
Religion is another pull down factor of Indian electoral politics.Rather than uniting people,religion has mostly divided India into many watertight compartments.Fundamentalists have taken political mileage of the situation by wooing people belonging to a specific religion and infused the poison of communalism in the electoral psychology.
Regionalism has been a key determinant of Indian voting behaviour since 1990s.Demanding separate state,promoting region specific interests have been the strategies of politicians to capture the vote bank.This has bred separatism and endangered intyernal security of the country.
Language is another important factor in this regard.Although its impact is not prominet in state level politics, in the national level it has played a key role.Dividing India into Hindi and non Hindi belts is an unfortunate outcome of this.
Hero worshipping is another popular trend in India psephology.On numerous occasions political parties have tried to capture popular sentiment by using charisma of their leaders.Therefore many political parties of India today are leader based rather than being ideology based.
Ideology has been a key factor in Indian politics.Communism is a glaring example of this and though recent trends show some changes, Bengal,Tripura,Kerala have long been communist strongholds.
Some important or sudden events or incidences can change the voting behavior as well as political equations.The proclamation of emergency was one such incidence which resulted in the then Congress government being toppled by the Janata Party in 1977.
Development works in the most silent yet the most effective manner in determining the popular mandate in elections in India.Developmental slogans like"Roti,Kapda, Makan" ,"Garibi Hathao","Bijli,Sadak,Pani" have long been used to attract the attention of the people.
Apart from the above mentioned factors, race,anti incumbency factor,terrorism etc have been the other determinants.However it must be noted that many a times a number of factors work in tandem to shape up the popular electoral opinion, thus making it further difficult for the politicians to make use of the existing situation and thereby producing unpredictable results as has happened in the national level in 2004 or in several states in the recent Lok Sabha Election.

PIRACY IN SOMALIA

Piracy off the Somali coast has been a threat to international shipping and an issue of international concern for over a decade and a half since the beginning of civil war in Somalia.This has increased the cost of shipping and impeded the delivery of shipments.However, in the last year or so, there has been a spurt in the activities of the notorious pirates and this has posed a serious threat to the trade and commerce of many nations as the Gulf of Aden which lies on the Somali coast is one of the busiest shipping channels of the world.

The reasons behind such an alarming increase of piracy in the particular region are many.Somalia with an estimated GDP of $600 per year is one of the poorest countries of the world.Such level of poverty along with the successful hijacking of a number of ships by the pirates have drawn large number of young men toward such gangs of pirates.Clan based social structure of the country,lack of a central government because of the ongoing civil war and its strategic location all have aided in the rise of such activities.Moreover, as there has been absence of coast guards,in the earlier days a number of shipping trawlers of other countries got access into the seawater.Moreover the Somali coast has been used as a dumping ground for toxic and nuclear wastes by many European and Asian countries.This has caused an erosion of fish stock of the Somali coast.With no other options available to protect themselves from such illegal activities, the poor fishermen found hijacking both the cargo ships and passenger ships a good way to sustain themselves.As in most of the cases the ransom was paid, the local warlords found it a lucrative business and began to facilitate pirate activities thus providing a better breeding ground of piracy.The Somali diaspora has aided the pirates by providing valuable informations and funds in return of heavy monetary profit.
There has been a rare show of unity among the nations to combat piracy in that region.Various countries have deployed warships to patrol the area.Many have deployed naval forces to escort their vessels through that region.European Union has started Operation Atlanta to combat piracy in the Gulf Of Aden.India has deployed INS Tavar and INS Mysore to show her eagerness to check piracy.
However, there must be an international effort to strike at the root of the problem.United Nations must strive for restoring peace and law in the nation.Monetary organizations have to increase financial aids to Somalia. Efforts must be guided to end the civil war in the country and bring back the pirates to normal stream of life.Otherwise darker days are looming ahead.