"A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user."

I had taken a leave on 23rd of April so that I can vote for the first time in the general elections, but my idea of choosing the people to run my country was just an illusion I guess. I didn’t have too much work to fall back on as a reason to not vote, hence I took a leave of 2 days to go and exercise my vote from my hometown “Dandeli” part of the “Uttara Kannada” constituency.
The city in itself is a very well developed one with a literacy percentage of above 85% I guess at the least. So my idea was that since it’s a mature and sensible city I would find many people turning out to vote. But that didn’t happen! I reached my hometown at 8.00 am and was ready by 10.30 to go and exercise my vote. I was excited and asked each one in the family to give their opinions of the party to vote for, my parents for some reason did not want to disclose whom they would vote for. Whereas I and my sister had a kind of brainstorming session on the party to vote for, finally we both agreed on a particular party and decided to vote for it.
At 11.00 am I drop my father to his polling booth and then went back to get my mother. I go into the polling booth accompanied by my mother; they give some slip of paper which has details of our registration number and the polling booth number. We have to give the slip in our respective booths and then show our voters ID card or any of the ID’s recognized by the Government of India, like PAN card, passport etc. They strike down our names as present and apply the indelible ink on the left pointing finger. Now we proceed to the hidden section of the booth where we vote by pressing a button beside the party symbol you want to vote for. I did just that and the process was over.
Now what amazes me is the very little time it took me to complete the entire process of voting, exactly 2mins and 20secs. What puzzles me more is the number of people who didn’t have only this much time to invest in the future of their country. In the evening my father came back from the polling booth with a sheet of paper in his hand which had details of the days voting in the city. Which revealed that only and only 40% of people had exercised their vote? In the evening I hear the NEWS channels reporting 34% of voting in the district, what a shame for being called a democratic district part of a “Great Democracy” which they say is “India”. As far as I can understand about the city I am from, it has a very huge population which either studies or works outside the city in places like Bangalore, Mysore, Pune, Mumbai etc. Since the cities are far from “Dandeli” they cannot come so far to vote I guess. This doesn’t however take away the fact they are just irresponsible one way or either. I bet most of the migrated population would not even have voters ID card also, neither from Dandeli nor at the place they live now for education or work, so forget about voting from any place. Most of the people would preferably enjoy a long weekend as a good break from their hectic lives but wouldn’t spare these 2mins for their future. I wonder if all this 75% of the population of India being aged less than 35yrs will ever benefit us at all as the great economists are predicting, because a countries growth depends both on the privately funded organizations that they work in and a publicly voted government also.
This wasn’t the case when the voters ID card were being distributed, there were long queues to get their ID card. I was happy to see so many people wanting to vote, but as I stood in the queue to get my voters ID card I met a senior lecturer from the local Degree college standing beside me. I started dicussing the voting trends and the way elections were held in the city. Firstly he said he was tired standing in the queue to get his renewed voters ID card, but he had to do it he said. With so many people in the queue he frustratingly said I bet not even 50% of the people want their ID because they want to vote instead want an identity proof which claims they are Indian and that they can enjoy the rights, privileges and the invaluable freedom that their beloved “Great Country” provides them. He gave a very interesting point of view about elections, the elections are held only for the poor or the lower middle class people. And the rest of the section of the society really didn’t care because it would never make a big difference to their lives.
He was put into a number of election duties earlier and he said he had hardly seen doctors, engineers, corporates, businessmen etc rarely come down to vote. Most of the people who vote where daily labourers, House wifes, small scale businessmen, employees of the Paper Mill that the city has and some section of learned few. Sometimes, he said that because the turnout was so less that they were ashamed to report the details of just 10 people turning up out of 1000 people in the list. Also he said that the teachers who were put onto the election duty would have to take some special permission to vote from the place they have been put to work. Now if so many people and sections ignore the process of voting I don’t know what the consequences hold for us may be bad roads, impure water, bad climate, corrupt people and institutions, communalism, regionalism, increase in crime and what not!!! This was the situation for the biggest of elections in the country, I guess nobody would not even know when the statewise or city elections go on.
I don’t necessarily mean that voting is the only way that any change can be achieved but it is surely one of the ways. It means you are as responsible for all the right and wrong that goes on in the country as the politicians or the bureaucrats are. It means that 2mins is like a drop of your time that can become an ocean of changing time. With just 40% percentage of voting reported it’s just the 40% voices heard from your side rest 60% are just numb watchers to the helpless situation that they and their countrymen face. It not a huge investment I guess but its worth it every second of it. I being a responsible citizen did it out of curiosity and sheer chance to do it; because I don’t live in a country like Burma, where army rules and is found helpless when its citizens are dying after a cyclone; I don’t live in a country like Pakistan, where democracy is an imaginative word; I don’t live in country like China, where citizens are treated like prisoners who should just follow orders, I live in a “Great Country” and I am just lucky enough to be living so freely and enjoying my freedom to its utmost. Democracy is a beautiful way to be heard and elect your representatives to run your country, believe me.