An abdication of a vote is an abdication from this democracy of ours, altogether. Do we want to do that? Do we want to be absentee-citizens at all or do we want to get to the polling booth and make our voice count, asks brand guru, Harish Bijoor
The poll bugle has been sounded. Karnataka votes on the 18th and 23rd of April. And every political party and independent candidate alike has gone to town with messaging that is touching us all.
As messaging from every quarter touches us, and as every citizen becomes a poll-sensitive citizen, talking, thinking and breathing-in the election literally, let’s sit back and decide how this is all going to pan out for the citizen at large, and what needs to be done and what needs to be avoided, as responsible folk who participate in a festival called the election. The ultimate festival of a Democracy!
General Elections 2019, as indeed every election from 1952 onwards, is an important one. Every election, with its myriad sets of real issues, gets the entire country of eligible voters out to the polling booth, asking for a mandate. A mandate that defines who will rule, and which policy and party philosophy is the real need of the moment for the country.
The first clean assumption all of us need to remember is the fact that every candidate and every party is right in what it represents. As citizens we need to enter the election with a clean mind. Every party has the best interest of the country and its people at large. But yes, every party has a different philosophy and route to solution, with which it will want to approach the problems of the people at hand. And that’s a great way to start as a citizen.
It is important to start without a bias. Without biases which are really old pieces of baggage, seldom dusted in our minds, but more often than not added on to, thanks to the fact that we typically look to bolster our belief systems rather than lighten them with the truth of the day. The point is simple. Every BJP supporter thinks the party and its leadership is the best for the country, just as a Congress, a JDS or for that matter the BSP thinks otherwise. What’s important is to remove the cobwebs of old memory from our minds and think more ahead than behind. The past is done with. The present is a reality and the future is our dream. Who’s good for the present and the future, to that extent, is more important than who was good or bad in the past.
And every election is a clutter. A clutter of noises, manifestos, high decibel promises and equally high-pitched accusations that fly all around. In this complete clutter, the voter typically finds it difficult to find his and her way. At times, the valuable vote is decided basis the last noisy and realistic-looking accusation or the last big rally that made the big impact. Must this be the way we will decide on our vote? Maybe not. There certainly needs to be a better method to our vote.
In the absence of a Presidential style of debate, the key swing factors for many of us at times is the last big noise that made the last big impact upon us before polling day. Must we then think of a fairer way of decision-making on the valuable vote in our hands? Remember, we get just one chance. The vote is therefore more of a rational weapon in our hands to take charge of the future. And it should be just that. It should certainly not be a leveraged emotional weapon in the hand of the clever candidate or political party, which knows exactly how to swing public opinion.
We need to therefore be careful. Careful enough to be aware that there is no clever mind-play process in action that can change the course of the vote in hand. A change in that course has an impact on the country , its economy and its future for the next 5 years. The vote comes to us as a right and indeed duty of volition, once in 5 years. Once cast, the vote cannot be taken back. Not for the next five years, when it renews in our hands all over once again.
And near the conclusion of this piece, there is the big issue of religion and caste and more. Do we want to vote on those lines? And is that a great thing to do? If we really want to run our democracy as a meritocracy, nothing but merit must decide who gets my vote. The right person at the candidate level, the right party at the level of leadership, and maybe even the right Prime Ministerial candidate must command the casting of our vote. Not anything else. Not caste or religion for sure.
The vote that we cast on the 18th and 23rd of April will get us a spanking new government at the Centre on 23rd May, 2019. This government needs to be one of our making. And to make that happen, each one of us need to vote.
Look at the numbers and they should worry us. Out of a total 10 eligible voters in the country, 6.6 actually vote. Out of the 10 of us eligible voters then, 3.4 will not vote at all, and only 2.6 will decide who will rule the country!
The final point in it all is the fact that vote we must. If you and I are eligible voters, we must turn up at the polling booth on the 18th and the 23rd of April. We need to make sure that every one in our near-radar is voting on that day as well. An abdication of a vote is an abdication from this Democracy of ours altogether. Do we want to do that? Do we want to be absentee-citizens at all?
