Saturday 6 December 2008

We the people choose our leaders????!!!!!

Hi
couple of days back i was chatting with a freind of mine in US, Richa and casually we started discussing about the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai and its effects on our country. Its the same old story of blaming the politicians of being corrupt, inefficient, unaccountable...and so on. then i asked her this question - how many times have you voted, the answer was none.......not surprising, i did it only once.....and the answer she gave was the fact that theres none whos eligible to choose, so rather than voting someone for the sake of doing it, i just dont.......shes from UP and the only choices available are Mulayam or Mayawati.......its the same case with me hailing from Tamilnadu and we have seen it over decades, it was Karunanidhi and MGR before and it is Karunanidhi and Jayalalitha now......theres no other choice!!!!this is the same case with every region in the country and in the national level BJP is the only other party that have emerged as an option to congress.....This is the reason the educated never vote, as far as i know.......so only the uneducated, who just go by the false claims and promises of the politicians.....or else what kind of democracy is this, wherein only 60% of people votes and of which a party securing 30/35% of vote wins....no one gets the point that the 40% who didnt vote, which is actually the majority doesnt want any of the candidates or party that fought the election........so all we need is reform in our democracy, in our election process. There are no educated youths willing to enter politics, though they want to bring in change because, the basic requirement to fight election is money and party power...and it is very difficult for any educated youth to join a party and grow within the party gaining confidence of the high command and bring in change the way political system works....the best example is of the "Lok Paritran Party" - the party fromed by ex - IITians, who wanted to bring in change and fought elections in 2005, but they all lost and lost their deposits too.....how will you inspire the educated youth to bring in the change that the country urgently deserves in these circumstances....
The only way forward is Election reforms.....We should have on the voting ballot, a separate box other than the candidates and their symbols, which is for people who dont want any of the candidates to be elcted or they dont think any of them deserve to be elected.....instead of the invalid vote which exists in our system now......And if there are more % of votes cast in this column, the Election commission should cancel the election and call for fresh election and nominations....this way the Tata teas " Jagore.com" awareness could be effective, with more people come to vote - not to choose, but to reject the fielded candidates....this will invariably motivate and help the aspiring youths, who are passionate towards bringing a change, to contest elections.......Will any government or political party dare to bring in this reform......only time will answer!!!!
So the irony of the fact is, India being the largest democracy in the world, actually dont have a proper democracy and the statement that " Elected by people" is a joke.........

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I believe people would be aware of 49'O' a section code which facilitates, the voter to say he is not interested in any of the candidate being nominated in his constituency. based on the percentage of these, the election commission will cancel that election and call in for fresh candidates. In the last election, this 49o was largely popularised by writer gnani.
The election commission reforms
- the foremost should be no criminal record. he/she should be allowed even if a small petty case is registered.
- the second should be the minimum educational qualification has to be set up for candidate.
-the next shall be, no repetition, no member should be allowed to contest, if he is elected twice.

Gopal said...

Thanks arun for giving this link and letting me to know of the constituional provision....but how many people are aware of this???and how will the election commission will come to know???
http://www.gnani.net/

Anonymous said...

Gopal that was a good one..in the sense that as far as leaders are concerned we are at a loss ,for choices are limited.. We are supposed to elect from the options available..even though there are so many political parties there is still nobody who can bring about a change..The entire system is so corrupt and greedy that those who want to bring in a change are kicked out as in what happened with the IITians....Also conducting re-elections is a big burden on the taxpayers money..i feel AWARENESS is the key to all these problems,especially the youth of today.

Srividya Padmanabhan said...

U have written my heart out, i completely agree with you on the fact that we as people do not choose the right leaders for our own befinit. In the end we need to be blamed.
I also would strongly question each one of us including me, how much do we know about our politians, Who is good and bad, How true are they ? How much of sense do they talk.
Yes Lok paritran was a failure in 2005, but the fact is that they are still alive with their presence in Karnataka, New Delhi, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. They are striving to re build.

I am not trying to say that they are the best, all i am saying is that Watch Out have a close eye on our country's political issues and thus be responsible for its growth. There is no use blaming politicians at the time of a breakout.

Ramesh Srivats said...

You have hit upon a flaw in democracy itself. This issue of "who do i vote for when all are bad" is not confined only to TN, UP or India. In most democracies (especially those with a first-past-the-post system, the majority doesnlt decide who comes to power. It is always decided by a bunch of small groups who feel very strongly about some localised issue - vote bank politics in other words.

Btw, if you want a few chuckles you may want to check out the speeches that I have suggested for our leaders - http://www.rameshsrivats.net/2008/12/100-word-election-speeches-part-2.html

Ramesh Srivats said...

Btw, the 49-O is yet another internet myth. It just says that where electronic voting is being held, abstainers can register and not vote (so that their vote is not stolen by someone else). The lection will not be cancelled or anything like that.

Gopal said...

Am sure there wouldnt be any provision for cancelling an election if more % of votes are casted for not choosing any of d fielded candidates, cos none of the political parties would want it in the first place.....But if awareness of 49o is spread across, the non voting educated will come forward n register for 49o and by this way u can prevent bogus voting and also there will be increase in % of voting. Who knows this could be a beginning in getting election reforms.....