As it Turnsout

I always have an opinion about votes, but I almost always shy away from debates on voting. It’s frankly because till date I haven’t had an opportunity to vote.  (I’ve seem almost 6 to 8 elections pass by btw) You can simply say I’m lazy, I don’t care about electing, or I still don’t feel empowered enough to actually believe that my vote can make a difference. 

The General Elections of India are probably one of the biggest democratic exercises on the face of earth, and with it comes a lot of drama, games, schemes, garlands, and well... some shoes too. The problem in the Indian electoral system since the earliest times has been the voter turnout. People don’t see it to be worth the effort.   The average voter turnout in the General Elections is around 60% meaning less than two thirds of the people were responsible for deciding whom to elect and assuming two thirds voted for the party(ies) forming the government, only about 40% of the total (voting) population of India chose the ruling party. So about 60% were in no way responsible for the central government! But I’m sure they had their share of complaining on how dysfunctional the government is. (Me included)

Ok here’s little info,

Voter turnout can actually say a lot, they are generally used to send political messages too. The 72% voter turnout in the Assembly election of Arunachal Pradesh in 2009 was hailed by the media and a few voices in India as a message against the Chinese aggressive pursuit of annexing Arunachal Pradesh. Similarly this time around (2014) certain groups... well ok terrorists (I was just trying do a Reuters and not use the word terrorist :D ) put up signs and distributed flyers telling people not to vote, in an attempt to show that Kashmiris don’t feel like voting or participating in the democratic system of India. 

www.mirror.co.uk

Now lemme tell you why I haven’t had a chance to vote yet. When I turned 18 I was sure I could cast my vote in the coming election, I was born in the beginning of the year and by the time the next election came in 2008 I was eager and well, had not yet figured anything in politics but wanted to vote, I was eager and was taken by the ‘right to vote’ thing. But my name was not in the list, disappointment. The next election was in 2009, I tried to register myself, the clerk at the official looking koisk asked me to fill form and took 2 or 3 photos, loksabha election 2009 – ‘sorry your name is absent in the list’, ok. 2010 – Municipal election, the guys came home (supposedly) and we weren’t at home; result – no vote. It’s been so through till now.  In the initial days I wanted a voter ID so that I can have an address proof, (then I got my passport, so lost interest all the more) Oh I forgot, last time I registered online, after everything is done, they want us to take a print of the sheet and goto the election commission office of our district, I got the print, but sadly never found time to do the submitting part. OK enough about me.

Speaking of Democracy itself, I feel it doesn’t work too well with India. I mean, in a country like India, the biggest and most diverse democracy of the world, we need to tailor the idea of democracy. What we currently have is a crude form of democracy that involves participation of everyone at once. How can you actually expect one hundred crore people to actually come out and vote? In fact if the 100 crore came out to vote, I’m not sure we have enough logistics to support that kind of a turn out. What I’m trying to say is this idea of total participative democracy is actually a failure. It doesn’t work. We cant have everyone voting at once... because ‘everyone’ is NOT everyone. Maybe we need stages, maybe increase the levels, cut the power, maybe increase hierarchy... who knows that might have its own problems, but my point is, low voter turnout will remain a problem in this crude form of total participation. Thats it!

Btw facebook pics, all the ‘be responsible’ ads and everything is making voting a glamorous thing, which is good.. might just get the urbans to vote.. but hey.. I still haven’t voted.. not even fashion can me vote.. I wonder how anyone would vote.

Strike The Root of Penury, Strike Not the Heart

Crisp Air turned Pungent and rolling wheels stuck. That’s the September of 2012 in Bangalore. Just after the BBMP called an indefinite Strike regarding the garbage clearing problem, five employ unions of the BMTC, KSRTC, NWKRTC and NEKRTC together called for an indefinite strike against the management calls of a 10% hike. The 10% salary Hike was not all that the Strike was based on, but it sure was the tipping point for the men. 

Talking about Strikes, they are not bad things.(in fact very good things for school kids) Strikes, Bandhs and demonstrations are powerful tools in a democracy. But how you use it is the question. Hurling stones and glass buildings, setting old tires on fire and painting walls is all that happens in India. Now I dont want to talk a lot about the ways we Strike in India or why we do them, but lets think of the whats happens when people strike. 

Obviously this article is coming but because of the Bus strike, so Im gonna talk about a few things I saw on tv. The Thousands of buses going off roads, lakhs of people stranded in bus stations. Some angry people throwing stones at buses, streets filled with cars and private vehicles, autos costing more than double or triple the meter price, or In short, everyone was having a bloody hard time. So can we conclude that the purpose of striking is to induce pain and cause damage??

isnt there a better way of striking? 

lemme quote buzzle

"One of the most important Japan facts is that the Japanese are amongst the most hard-working people in the world. Once, the workers of a shoe factory in Japan went on strike. The way they protested, represents certain facts about Japan which are typical of its industrious population. They simply worked on the manufacturing of single shoes (only for one leg). This way the production remained on course, but the company couldn't sell the product. Once the issue was resolved, the other pair was manufactured, resulting in a win-win situation for both company and the workers."

Can’t we do something like that?? 

Bandhs are all too famous in india.. but finally its india losing.. not the govt or some specific group of people. Its Indias growth that gets hampered during bandhs, businesses counting losses when banks call strike, and people lakhs of em suffering when theres a strike by something as important as public transport. 

We can’t be like Japan, we are different people all together. We’re not as hard working as them, and neither do we care if our inaction causes loss to the public. But we’re emotional people, and people like you, me and us built this nation and made what it is today.  We made India as big and powerful as it is. Today, India constitutes upto 80% of the total GDP in all of South East Asia. We’re not as useless as we think, we’re good people. Everyone panics when pushed back to the wall. We just need to know how to think. All of us are the same, and if I don’t care for the greater good, then how could you?  

PS: notepad typing, so spare my spellings pls :D