Know where you stand before you get inked in the largest democratic exercise of the world!

As the largest democracy of the world goes to polls this season, most of the folk are asking who should they vote for or should I say, most of them have already made their minds to vote for so and so! Development, legacy, over-the-top oratory, new energy or be it old issues in new package; we all have our own reasons to press that one button, the one that will decide next five years. There are people who perceive it as power-in-their-hands and there are those who see it as the same old compulsion to do so. For a hundred million voters who will press that button from EVM for first time is kind of an excitement, it’s kind of buttons from some remote control that will decide his/her boss! Sounds like digging pit for ourselves! Doesn’t it?

Meanwhile, somebody should go salute those greats who sit in the comforts of their homes complaining about every other thing that has gone wrong and abuse their leaders in languages any sane person would find alien. What should they do? Shouldn’t they feel agitated over people they choose behaving like aliens to them when it is time for them to act and concentrate upon business they are voted for? They should. In fact they have every right to be angry about. But why not come out when it is time for one and dethrone the incapable and choose the capable one, someone who is need-of-the-hour. Oh Jeez! I forgot. There are these poor constituencies where nobody’s fit for a chance! NOTA button? Why not? Yes, it does nothing better than burn some calories of voter who walks up to a remote booth, and we have 9,30,000 of them across India housing 14,68,430 Electronic Voting Machines(EVMs) but it does registers our voice of dissent, it says to the world that we are not being offered candidates worthy of giving them a chance, worthy of giving a thought even.  Who knows, there may come a day in future when we will get power to ban these incapable candidates, all because of a button called ‘NOTA’. Anyhow, don’t forget the efforts few activists had to put to get that button on EVM!
Ready to get inked? Hope you do. You must, if you ask me. Now there is another important question ringing in our brains from so long, long since first speech of that charismatic leader to that news of multi-billion crore scam to news of rapes to that angry man on streets; we have asked it ourselves many times, on different occasions. Some have made their mind already while many still stand on tight-ropes awaiting that push of current in their cranium before they press that button. Okay, enough said. Let’s decode to know what kind of voters are there awaiting their turn to cast their vote, to use the superpower they get every five years!

More than fifty percent (courtesy of no opinion polls but simple common sense!) of voters have already made their mind since long, not to vote some particular leader but not to vote few particulars; or should I say to a party that has failed miserably, not just in governing but even to market what they had achieved to perform. I read this tweet few days back on twitter which sums them all,

“Not an AAPtard. Not a ModiBhakt. Just a Congress hater.”

So down the belt, more than crowning someone the kingship, it’s more about dethroning the other one. And to do so, there are many choices at other side.

First are those voters who are fed up of slow and sluggish governance peppered with multi-crore scams, a leadership that is hardly any leadership and a cadre that has very less (or should one say nothing ) to offer this season. These are those people who believe that one man will change the way India was governed all these years, he will in a sense will rise to the occasion and will solve anything and everything that worries the popular folklore. Hope you have already been served with ads and slogans from TV channels to print media to banners in your neighborhoods; the same ones which remind us of outgoing governments falters and ‘remind’ us of this one man who can fix them all for us! Sounds like a superman, don’t he? He is in many sorts a superman for all his fans or should I call ‘patriots’, ‘nationalists’, people who put ‘India First’. He has developed his state being head of the same like nobody could dream of one. Am I sound bluffing? Pardon me if I do. I and many are being fed since long with the continuous dose of a ‘development’ model of one particular state like there is nothing in the world happening except the same. From print media to visuals, he and the proofs of his ‘development’ models are everywhere; love it or hate them; you simply can’t escape their touch. He is everywhere. I sound critical, pessimist, against the idea of ‘India First’ now! Is it? Sorry again. Actually, he amazes me, in ways I can’t express myself completely. His idea of a nation free of reservation, free of religion where I won’t have to mention my religion or caste to get admission into some school or for that coveted job, simply takes floor off my feet. Doesn’t it happen to you? Will he be that messiah India is waiting for, eagerly? Time only will reveal better. As of now, one should give him a try, or so do they ask us to do.

Second are those people who think otherwise. What if he doesn’t! What if the party he heads brings with it all those old fears attached with it? What if? Just give it a thought. Yes, you and I want our nation to prosper, to see our future generation in safe surroundings but what if the risk we are taking in the hope of other side turn nightmare? That probably is just a thought, a what-if, but worth giving a second. Am I sounding pessimist, that-old-guy-who-fears-taking-risk? Be it so. These are the very people who are okay with a weak head-of-the state who do nothing than someone all powerful who could do anything, yes, anything. They ask, “If he was so clever, had his model of development that he talks about everywhere can work with any state and not just his, why has he not provided the key of the same to his counterparts, the other CMs who head his party’s government in other states!” Okay. May be he wanted to apply it himself, once he crowns himself the kingship, the messiah. No problems in it, right? We too try ourselves at copyrights. Who would part with one’s discovery, huh? Alright, we can wait; country can afford to wait few more days, after all we have been waiting for him since independence (they say it! Remember Nehru-Patel debate? You must have if you have been listening to them!).

Next in pipeline are these interesting people who find streets and not parliament, as the way forward. These are the very people who have placed their hopes on a man who rose from almost ashes after the near death of a revolution that brought issue of corruption into main-stream politics. Someone who worked with Mother Teresa, who left his job of Joint Commissioner in the Income Tax Department to fight against the graft. Is graft the root of every problem one faces today in a nation of 1.2 billion people? It does look one when we have to pay undue amount from a policeman to that spectacled babu of some shabby government office. This gentleman who calls himself an aam aadmi (common man) has been pioneering his fight against graft since long. First by being a key member of the team that got us Right to Information (RTI) which became pivotal in uncovering mammoth scams to classified information that became headlines instantly and then, by being an active member of a team (the same team that shoot to stardom from national media to international media for fasting in Gandhian way for enactement of JanLokpal Bill aimed at fighting graft). Who would prefer digging their own grave? Political class too didn’t succumb to obey his team and so ended the fight for JanLokpal.  And when things didn’t worked his way, he took the road less travelled, flouted his own political party which by some miracle took Delhi polls by storm and he managed to crown himself as the head of Delhi although with support of Congress, the same party he vehemently fought against. The sour marriage didn’t last long and so ended the issue based support when he tried to pass JanLokpal in the Delhi assembly. He probably was the first CM who took to streets, slept on streets being in power himself. Some named it ‘anarchism’ then, but to me who had read their manifesto with which they had fought Delhi elections saying “We will struggle to get what we have promised”, it was neither surprise nor any shocker. They were just keeping their promise taking their manifesto quite seriously. Yes, we Indians are not used to such things; we were used to manifestos that are printed each new elections but hardly acted upon. So, there’s no wrong with people, who called them ‘anarchists’ either. They were just acting Indians! They are promising graft-free new way of governance and power in our hands. Swaraj they say will enable us to decide who will make roads before my home, how much and when shall the contractor will be paid – in short they want to bring talk of elections to some local level, the level where common man understands it. Oh wait, I’m getting it now! May be that’s the reason why they tag themselves under the cap of Aam Aadmi Party!

Then, the last ones, the ones who appears to see none of these big guys. They are not very much concerned who helms the throne of Delhi or who wins the seat of holy Varanasi! They are keenly watching what is going around, but feel what should concern them most is who will crack open the election juggernaut locally, in their own constituency. They believe its drops that make the ocean, sweeter the drops sweeter will be the ocean. Why not choose a good, sensible candidate from your constituency and send him to parliament? Let him belong to AAP or BJP or Congress or any other old or new party, why worry of the ocean when the drops you choose are finer from the lot offered to you? Let us then wait and see who heads that sweet ocean! Moreover nor the man who propose ‘development model’ nor ‘the man on street’ nor this guy with dimples who promise women empowerment will build roads before your home nor will dig drainage lines or will see that you get proper drinking water. These voters in particular, as I feel, dream of power in their hands! Power-hungry? You may call them!
There also is this another gang who call themselves intelligent’ and refrain from casting vote, and tomorrow, when something bad occurs, they giggle, taunt, “I told you, they are all the same and goddamn, you voted them!” You just could feel pity over them and do nothing!

I don’t know where you fit in or who do you will vote for, nor it matters to me until and unless, you walk to a polling booth nearby and cast your vote remembering well in your mind that the one you are getting inked for is the one who will rule over you for next five years. It’s all up to you who you choose for. It’s your life, your village, your constituency, your nation; all I request is, come out, think for your sake, your friends, family, and countrymen and press it!
Happy Voting!!