 |
 For last several weeks, I had been putting a lot of my time and efforts in making sure as
many people were registered to vote for the coming Lok-Sabha elections. I also participated in the process of Matdata Jagriti Abhiyan – whereby we disseminated information regarding the contesting candidates as well as knowledge about right to vote amongst urban as well as rural population in Gujarat.
And finally, the D-day was today for Gujarat (the state being part of the Phase III for the Indian elections) – ‘a festival of democracy’ as they call it! The day which would decide fate of hundreds of contesting candidates and the day for which so many civil society movements had worked so hard for! Today, the sovereignty would transfer from people to their representatives. And naturally, I was extremely excited. On my way to the polling booth, I started thinking about who actually I was going to vote for!! I thought about the background check of candidates I had carried out a few days ago and remembered how I had felt let down on knowing who the candidates were. Even though after working so hard in making sure as many people came out and voted on the election day, I could not believe, I myself was an undecided voter!
I saw a poster on my way to the polling booth ‘If you don’t vote on 30/4, consider yourself a handicapped for next 5 years’. Yes – I was on my way to vote, but I was already feeling handicapped for the right choice! I was supposed to choose from a list of candidates in which many had criminal records, many were post-60 years and so many who had not even studied upto graduation. I felt saddened at how little any of these candidates had to offer. I felt saddened, all the more, at the thought of choosing a candidate from those who practically made no efforts to come and talk to people in my constituency as to what we expected of him/her. I felt saddened that I was voting for someone who I had barely any interaction with, someone who did not even care which way I voted. I got off from my car and my eyes could not help but notice a sticker I had posted on it some days ago ‘Acche ko chune, Sacche to chune’ (vote for the good, vote for the truthful) and I felt shaken. Where are all the good and truthful candidates?
At the polling booth, I first went to a stall which helped me check my name in the Voting list. I noted that it was a booth of a particular political party. I tried interacting with them about who the candidate was and what he had to offer. Unfortunately, those workers started convincing me that I should vote for that person because he was from a particular cast. Distraught, I went to a stall by another political party. Unfortunately, the volunteers at that stall were not even sure about the candidate’s background/election promises. I felt let down again.
Inside the polling booth, I got the mark on my hand and then asked the presiding officer if I could refrain from voting as per Form 17-A and thus, my vote would be ‘a cancelled vote’ (ps: not the same as ‘none of the above’). The people standing in queue behind me started looking at me with dazed eyes and started talking amongst themselves. The presiding officer and his assistant requested me to co-operate since this would cause a lot of unnecessary trouble for them and would require them to fulfill a lot of needless paperwork.
I was confused! On one hand, there were candidates who did not deserve to be sent to Delhi, on another there were these government servants, who were working very hard in making sure the process went as smoothly as possible.
I prayed to God to enable me to do the right thing. Silently, I went behind the partition and pressed a button on the Electronic Voting Machine. My vote was cast! Yes – I voted but disillusioned.
On my way back, I wondered… will this vote be against corruption, against terror, against inefficiency – as the television advertisements kept saying? Will this vote be for the future of our children? Will this vote change the destiny of our country?
Well, it would be – if only we consider this vote as a start of the process of change and not the end.
By Kanan Dhru, Founder - RFGI
| |
