I got the opportunity to cast my right to vote a few days ago during Vidhan Sabha Elections in the state where I now reside. The experience of feeling so important had never subsided within me since I cast my first vote couple of decades ago. I am least interested in politics. However, little things of my daily life do make me think about whats going around.
It was the morning of our voting day and I was going through the newspaper over my cup of morning tea. I was very pissed off to see the front page that carried a huge poster of vote appeal of a political party. In the consecutive pages the case was similar with different political parties asking for vote. My question as a voter is when the campaign has ended the earlier day then why it is still going on in the media? Shouldn’t it be prohibited from all social platforms both offline and online? How will a voter decide what is good for him or her if the parties are always up on their face day and night.
Visuals are the best way to brain wash a person. Showing a person the same or similar visuals day and night will make the person dull, inactive to think properly. Do you think such a person will be in a good state of mind to decide for the future government. Ferrying a voter to the polling booth, political party booth camps outside the polling stations are also similar gimmicks to lure the voters which should be stopped on the polling day. A political party can help a voter by allowing them to vote without any manipulations.
Also as a voter, it’s my duty to choose the right person to run the government. But I have never got the chance to meet the candidate in person to whom I was casting my vote. My vote was more to a political party rather the individual in the local area or maybe the other way round. However, most of the time we choose by looking at the big picture which these parties paint forgetting the actual facts and figure. Most of the hoardings on rooftops and roadsides announce the benefits a voter will get if the party wins. But what about the previous promises? Were they fulfilled? Did the person really take the initiatives to address the issues that a voter was facing in his her locale? I regret that I had cast my vote without even meeting the candidate. What if he falls short of the promises made? What if he isn’t what was portrayed of him? I would regret my action taken then.
In the polling booth I waited for one and half hour for my turn. No the queue wasn’t big at all. The volunteers inside the room were taking time. When it was finally my turn I went inside the room and saw couple of people working together to execute the process of voting. One person was checking the identity card of the voter and announcing the serial number on the list. One person was taking down the number along side the voter’s name in another assigned sheet and then providing a small chit with all the details to the voter. Three people were verifying the voter details in their assigned sheets. Another person was collecting the given chit from the voter and applying the ink on the voter’s finger before sending the voter to the polling machine. The entire process was manual and took hardly a couple of seconds. However, I found out that our queue was taking so long because the volunteer who was providing the chit was incompetent. She was a senior and probably not that well trained for the job. In fact, I found her nervous and confused. Another person was standing over her head and repeating the numbers for her which she was still not able to write. Now who should I blame for this? The lady or the people who considered her fit for the election duty? And who actually suffered because of it? Along with me there was a young mother who had come with her toddler and she was having a tough time managing the child standing in the queue in the sun outside. There were seniors who were capable of walking but not capable of standing for too long in the sun. I suggest for them there should be a separate queue.
And in the end I would like to mention about the voting age in our country. 18 years. As a parent do you really think your kid is grownup enough to choose a government? Is the child even allowed to participate in the family decisions or is he or she old enough to pay their bills ? If not then how are they allowed to vote? If the right marrying age has been revised from 18 to 21 years then shouldn’t the voting age be reconsidered? Choosing a government is about a mature mind and not about age factor.
It’s about time we think about it and enjoy democracy in its true self.
Paromita Goswami 