Deedalash’s Weblog

IMPORTANCE AND UNIMPORTANCE OF VOTE

01 Apr 2009 9 Comments

by deedalash in elections, Uncategorized Tags: elections, importance of vote, india, indian elections, indian future, right to vote, vote

mmmm….not bad I am writing my second post in less than a week. I am not much of a social activist  I dont much bother and get touchy if an official is taking some bribe in front of me. Dont get me wrong I mean I cant get touchy for such things because in my country its all common. The number of times an old man visits Government office for his pension is more than his age or may be the number of days he is left with. That is the way here(there is a history how I picked up this line read below). I already told you I am not very touchy about such things then why the hell am I writing this?? Is’nt this your doubt? Wait I will answer to that later. 

When I was young I was taught in my text books that India is a secular country. After two days I read in the newspaper that there were something called Communal riots in Godhra and Hindus attacked Muslims and Muslims attacked Hindus. I dint understand back then much of it. But when I went out of my house everything was peaceful and my neighbour who is a muslim smiled at me and I answered back with a smile just wondering if I should do it or not. Even to day its like silent agreement that we smile at each other no mater what. I am sure she knows about all the attacks and even I know(I normally dont get confused things make me confused). Okie leme not get too much touchy I told ya right I am a plain girl I just watch things pass by. I dont take up much reponsibility to change my country like others talk about. But I dont say that India is hopeless too.Of coarse it is advancing try to google the swizz bank account money details even if it is a superficial detail  nearly half the amount in it belongs to Indian leaders(I’ll talk about them later.C’mon this is my first lengthy blog lemme show off a bit)). Well next point is I still remember my dad gifted me Gandhijis biography with all colourfull papers on my birthday. I asked him why was he giving me that and he told me that I need to develop good qualities and stay in India to stop corruption and all that kinda emotional lecture(which I dint take much to heart of coarse). Two weeks after that I went to a Governement office along with him and he handed over a gift wrapped in a newspaper to some person working in the office. He was seated under the photo of Gandhi, looked really decent(my memory doesn’t fail in such things)  but he took the gift from under the table. I wondered why and asked dad for some possible reason. He told me that it was a bribe for the permission to construct house. I muttered with all childish innocence “But dad Gandhiji said not to take…”. My dad laughed releasing the frown he had earlier while giving that gentleman at the office the gift inside newspaper and preached me the biggest secret for happy life, at least while in India”That’s the way things work out”(this is how i picked up this scentence,my dad put it in my mind first). He smiled and patted me. I smiled back as if I understood.Once again I repeat I m not upset that my dad bribed someone or with all those things, but why people confuse me. He could have told me on my birthday right read Gandhi’s book because its important for your school and quizzes(many questions related to Gandhi’s life are asked in quizzes.That’s one way how we honour that great man)..But do not follow them. Huh whatever.

Ok now its the time I ll tell ya why am I writing this post about corruption in my country even if that fact doesn’t bother me much. Well its because I am going to vote now despite all these when I had the voter ID card in my hands I was really happy. May be because I am an adult now or may be because my Government recognized me as a mature adult who has the discretion to choose the leader for the country. Huh…what a joke? Look I already told you I am not that emotional, with silly things like that. Well I give a lot of reasons right so even this has a reason. My dad has voter Id card in two places, my mom has it in three places. These places are pretty far away from each other for a human limit to reach in one day but, I swear I seriously swear that according to Government of India they cast vote every year in all these places on the same day. My mom voted only 7 times to date among many elections she has seen. All the other times someone else casted her vote. Well now coming to the villages and the dark slums and the legend of their votes. Every leader contesting come to their place every time and tell them how can they change their lives from rags to riches. They even tell them how much of a honest leader they are and how their party is going to take India to a golden future. At the end of this promises thingy they handover a cheap whiskey bottle in the darkness to all the voters, few give money and the others more expensive gifts based upon the money they can earn being in that position. Well during the elections people cast their votes to the leaders who made them more happy compared to the others. They know that their vote is not going to make any difference because all the leaders are just the same. Only mad people wait for the vows of leaders to come true. Seriously this aint a lie. At the end of the elections the leader who spent the most wins the elections and everyone forgets about the election’s including leaders,people and of coarse me too. Believe me I have been seeing all this from my childhood. People in slums become busy in their fight to live, middle class people fight to save more and more money to buy some cheap flat in a corner of the city, upper middle class people fight spending less money on their expense, rich people don’t need to fight at all, leaders fight to steal as much as possible, opposition fights with the ruling and I keep watching like usual. See everyone perfectly fits the role. The next elections come and the leader who corrupted the most under cover gets ticket to contest for a better position, people in the slums become happy because they get free whiskey and money, middle class people become suddenly responsible for one day and vote for someone who comes to their mind at the final second, upper middle class try to get a bit active to adjust their schedule for voting and vote only of they do not have anything else to do at that time,rich people well they don’t need to vote at all. Newspapers roar and social activists(as they call themselves) yells at ruling party and  opposition party, tries to  show the drawbacks of the present government and enlighten public so as to cover their mistakes done when they were previously in power and finally, people like me blog about it in the middle of the night with an exam to read for the next day. Huh this always goes on so lemme end here. That’s the way things work here.hehe

All of a sudden a change comes in the routine when lethargic people  like me think about casting their vote no matter what to the rightful owner of the position. When they think of analyzing someone better among the worst case scenarios. See I told you I am a plain girl I don’t try squeezing my brain much for social problem that cant be solved I only solve my problems. Voting is of coarse the problem of I,Me,Myself country is secondary. So I’ll think about this big problem in my small routine life and analyze it before solving it. Of coarse I can if I can atleast vote the better one. So at the end its decided that I will vote and utilize it before someone else forge it. I may not change my country with it even then its my vote and so I am going for it. After all its my country and I love it.(ahhh.. such a dramatic ending..)

Do comment about what you think of the above thingy I wrote and do read other thingies too on my blog and comment them too. They are not this bad though .I have better thingies coming up special election edition.Heyy all the Indians out there please cast your vote. 

Read about elections in India in the following links.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_India

http://www.indian-elections.com/about-election-commission.html