The ultimate goal of any election is to win. Political parties in India have all been accused of inciting riots, spreading fake news, exploiting caste tensions, and playing dirty politics to win elections in the past. Now, a board game simulates India's complex electoral process to give us common folks a go at playing the role of party leaders jostling for power.
In The Poll – The Great Indian Election Game, designed by Abeer Kapoor, each player takes the reins of a political party and takes care of its affairs. These include managing the party's funds, advocating for their many policies, and allocating resources in the run-up to the general election.
Kapoor, a journalist and politics-junkie, came up with the idea for the game while reporting on the Karnataka Assembly polls last year. He identified key elements that political parties have. “They have money, they have feet on the ground, and then they have an agenda or ideology to present to people and garner their vote”, Abeer tells us on his visit to Malayala Manorama office. These are also the key components of The Poll.
At the start of the game, players must draft their policies from a stack of 'policy cards' to build their manifesto. These are essentially your election promises. For example, there are cards that allow you to strengthen intelligence gathering, set up fast-track courts, and introduce better police recruitment. The players then must elaborate on why these chosen policies would work in their favor in order to gain influence.
Each constituency that is drawn would have information on its most pressing problems. If a certain party has a policy or combination of policies (say, better police recruitment and strengthen intelligence gathering) to solve the problem of 'increasing crime', then the player gets to put little wooden cubes on that constituency to signal influence there. What is interesting is that these policy cards are in part sourced from actual manifestoes of real political parties.
It is during the 'campaigning phase' of the game that power struggles between political parties become more apparent. Players utilize the party funds to play from a hand of 'campaign strategy' cards which would either boost their influence or detract from another's. Campaign strategy cards include conventional and legal tactics like holding a rally or roping in celebrities, or, illegal ones, like bribing media outlets, using black money, or exploiting caste tensions. Should your party find itself buried under scam allegations, you may use the Election Commission (EC) card to negate them.
Like in real politics, you can't expect to win by playing fair. There is much jostling for power and a lot of arguing. You have to play hard and dirty to win, sometimes it would mean forming an alliance with someone whose policies are completely against yours or backstabbing a friend. “Alliances form naturally in the game because you have to argue, you have to campaign,” Kapoor said.
Lok Sabha elections 2019 is underway in India. With 900 million voters, it is the largest election in the world, a grand exercise in democracy. This time, about 15 million people are casting their vote for the first time. That's almost half the population of Kerala. Political parties have increasingly shifted their campaign focus to address this growing percentage of vote share to turn the tide in their favor. But there's a problem. Reports indicate that in 2019, political apathy is worn like a badge of honor by many youngsters. While they are extremely political, engaging in politics is considered a big “no-no”; to use the words of a first-time voter, “not cool”.
In all fairness, Indian politics is a combustible mix of religion, caste, and corruption. In today's society that equates quietness to intelligence, one can't blame these youngsters for staying away from the deafening din of an election campaign. But if we don't exercise our civic duty, then who will? Who is going to put these candidates accountable for their actions and inaction?
A recent opinion poll conducted by Manorama News predicts that it is going to be a close contest in many of Kerala's constituencies. In Thiruvananthapuram and Chalakuddy the share of votes that separate the top parties is under 1 per cent. It's your vote then that is going to make a difference.
Yet for many, navigating the electoral process is very challenging. The opaque and complex nature of it eludes even the most thorough, never mind those who'd rather be playing PUBG.
The Poll then is a much-needed bridge between these youngsters and the electoral process. Kapoor was very determined to make this a board game rather than a digital variant. “We live in a time where we are losing friends and relatives over differences in political ideology. The problem is we are not ready to sit down, discuss and debate. The board game offers an opportunity to do just that.”
Abeer also insists that the game is not a civics lesson. He feels politics and policies affect our daily lives and as a citizen, one should care to be vigilant about the process. There is a general sense of apathy due to the opaqueness of our electoral process. With the game like The Poll, Abeer hopes to make a difference.
The game has been developed with funding from Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF) and backed by Seeking Modern Applications for Real Transformation (SMART), an NGO that runs a community radio station in the northern state of Haryana. Journalist Abeer Kapoor led the creation of the game, with assistance from researchers Anandya Bajaj and Vidita Priyadarshani.