DAY 26, APRIL 16, VARANASI

ELECTION DAY

Elections were held in India today.
Strict security was in play.
On the streets you couldn't drive.
This was the first phase of five.
Outcome knowledge is a month away.


CEREMONY

Was the ritual to Lord Shiva?
We watched if from the river.
Don't know much about it.
But there's no doubt about it:
It's special to a believer.


Today we have quite a bit of free time. The reason relates to the elections. We are again in a Radisson (as we were in Khajuraho) and again have FREE wi-fi.

The first thing today, even before breakfast, was an hour session of yoga, but both Helen and I declined to participate. But I looked in on the class. I hate yoga and can't really do it because of my lack of flexibility and balance. Nearly everyone else participated, and the level was very low.

The third thing we did was visit a silk weaving center almost next door to the hotel. Silk weaving was demonstrated and explained. Wonderful silk goods were offered for sale at reasonable prices, and some were purchased. The proprietor was very gracious, humorous, and easy going (not a pressure salesman).

The second thing was a walk in the streets. For our first time we saw a Christian church. Except for motorcycles and scooters, there was almost no motor traffic (a very strange situation). That is because today is election day, and no driving is allowed during the daytime polling hours for security reasons. Security is very high for the elections. Campaigning for these elections has been going on for some time. We've been seeing reports of the campaigning in the newspapers and Som has commented on it. This is billed in the newspaper as the world's biggest electoral exercise. It involves 17 states, 124 constituencies (seats), 158 million voters, 1,715 candidates, 162 parties, and 180,000 polling stations. During our walk, Som gave a detailed explanation of the elections, and I want to repeat it in detail. The elections are for seats in the lower house of the Indian national government, the Lok Sabha, which is like our House of Representatives and Great Britan's House of Commons. India also has an upper house, but it has less power, its members are not directly elected by the people (but by groups of elected and appointed officials), and generally acts almost like a rubber stamp on the Lok Sabha. There are 543 MPs (members of the lower house, the Lok Sabha). The election is in five phases. This is phase one. Only 124 seats are up for election today. The whole process will take more than a month. The reason it is done this way is because the high security means so many policemen are needed that a lot of them must be brought in from other areas. Final results are announced at the end of the fifth phase, and nowadays they are then announced promptly then. But no results, not even exit polls, are announced till then. To win a seat, a candidate need only have more votes than any other candidate. (There are no run off elections.) The party that wins a “majority” of the seats forms a government and names the prime minister. But “majority” means 2/3 in this case. It's highly unlike that one party will achieve this 2/3 majority of seats. If no party achieves a 2/3 majority of seats, a coalition government will be formed. India has a President, but she is just ceremonial. When a government is formed, it will be presented to her for approval. The President is not elected directly (but by groups of elected and appointed officials). The terms of the Mps – I'm not sure; it's either 2 years or 3 years. During the elections period the Electoral Commission and its District Commissioners have great power and, to an extent, take the place of the regular government. There are rules against campaigning close to polling stations on election day. People queue up at a distance until allowed by the police to proceed to another queue at the polling station. The minimum voting age is 18. Schools are used as polling stations. Teachers MUST serve as election officials. This sometimes means they have to travel far from their homes to serve, and they may have to be away for a week. Voters, of course, have to be registered ahead of time and their registration is checked at the polling station, but they don't have to declare a party. There are local observers at the polls (who are acquainted in the precinct) who can challenge voters (to prove they are who they say they are and registered). We were shown what an election registration card looks like. There is a possible confusion in that some people also have a Ration Card (which we were also shown) which allows them to buy certain food items at a discount. Overall in India the voting percentage is 40 to 60%. It can be as high as 80% in areas where the education rate is high. Only 30% of people 18 to 25 vote. The age group with the highest percentage of voters is 46 to 55 years. There is no provision for absentee ballots or early voting. If you are away from home, you are just out of luck. Dye is put on the fingers of voters, presumably to prevent them from trying to vote a second time.

At a 4:30 PM meeting, Som reviewed all the places we have visited and helped locate the map of India that we were all given.

About 6 PM we began our evening adventure. It was an optional excursion that all but one of our group bought into. We rode the bus to the central part of the city and from there rode bicycle rickshaws approximately two mile across the center of Varanasi to the waterfront on the Ganges River. Riding a rickshaw in India is great fun.

After looking around on shore for ten minutes, we boarded a big boat rowed by two young men whose family owns the boat. We were taken to a point out from where the cremations are performed. It was explained to us, and we watched the half dozen fires from the boat. This is the most important cremation site in India. It is a very holy place to which all Hindus want to make a pilgrimage some time in their lives.

The ashes are placed in the river after cremation. Cremations are performed only by men (regardless of the gender of the deceased). In four cases, cremations are not performed: holy men, children 12 and under, pregnant women, and people who died of snake bite. In these cases the bodies are weighted with stones and dropped in the middle of the river. Eventually the bodies break free and wash down the river. It's only Hindus who live in or near Varanasi that are cremated here. Sometimes the ashes of people cremated at a distance are brought here and placed in the river. There are only two points on the river at Varanasi where cremations are performed. Cremations are performed 24 hours a day, usually several at the same time. Cremations are always performed where there is water -- even if it's a dried up river bed. (The ashes will eventually flow to the Ganges.) The Ganges also flows by Kolkata, which we first visited, but no cremations are not performed there -- at least not in sizeable numbers. You mustn't take photos of cremations -- well you can at a distance on the river where you're not directly out from them.

Then we were taken to a point just slightly off-shore from where a religious ceremony was in progress. This ceremony is performed every evening at sunset. The Ganges River is a holy river, and Varanasi is a holy city. It is the city of Shiva. There are many temples to Shiva in Varanasi. We watched the ceremony for half an hour. It is a ritual to Mother Ganges (a Hindu god), not to Lord Shiva. Seven priests were performing the ritual in unison, each on an elevated platform in a row of platforms. There were huge crowds around the platforms on shore. There were other boats lined up next to ours. It was very loud with a lot of intended noise as part of the ceremony. One of the priests was singing a melodic song in a deep voice over the microphone. The priests were making graceful motions mainly with their arms. They were burning incense, using bells, and using fire – sort of a tree of candles. It was certainly an exotic show to see.

Then we rode the rickshaws the two miles back to the bus in the dark, extremely crowded, chaotic streets crammed with mainly motorcycles, bicycles, rickshaws, and pedestrians. Fun! It's a miracle how the drivers avoid crashing or hitting a pedestrian. The rickshaw ride and the ceremony were both like being on a different planet.

Back at the hotel, we enjoyed our farewell dinner, a very fine dinner.

Bernie :-)