It has long been a matter of wonder to me how some people, once approached by journalists or surveyors during elections, suddenly begin speaking in the elevated language of public life. In no time they start describing their expectations in soaring terms, in maudlin phrases like “children’s future” and “development”. They don’t mean anything close to that.
They know their real private worlds in which they live, struggle and navigate for their good – far away from the public world of polls and governments. Earlier this month, as another cycle of assembly elections concluded across India, the familiar spectacle returned once again. Journalists from television channels, digital platforms and YouTube networks moved through different poll constituencies in search of the public mood. Similar scenes now accompany elections in other parts of the world as well, wherever modern political life places citizens briefly under the glare of mediated attention.
