What is it that prevents the common Indian person to stay away from the polling booths. Not all of them, mind you. For the most part, people understand their responsibility and come out to vote. Then we have a group of “elitists” who don’t seem to think they need to grace the polling booth, for whatever flimsy reason they can concoct.
It’s not like they haven’t seen lines of people waiting patiently, and yet a line of people waiting to vote seems to be a formidable force that they get maimed by! Is this what a true democracy looks like? Even in the USA, we have scragglers who don’t show up to vote but that’s a very minute part of the population. When a city , the size of Bangalore, shows only 50% of its population votes, this does show a systemic problem. I would venture a guess that the city is inhabited by a transient population that is unable to connect with the local representative. However, ideologies should dictate the vote not the person. A good person belonging to a corrupt political party will not be able to serve the population; on the other hand, a corrupt politician in a good party will feel the pressure to straighten up or leave.
There is a way to get everyone to vote In cities like Bangalore. Being a hitech city, it doesn’t take too much to connect the voting records to any organization’s H/R, payroll and finance departments. This would give the organization a view on whether, or not, their employees voted. Levy a fine on those who didn’t and you’ll see a marked improvement in voting numbers! Will organizations be amenable to this? It will take a lot of money to get this done and organizations might not be open to that.
Volunteers who have been working to get the common people to vote are distraught at the low turn out. To them all I can say is “you did all you could. Now we wait”! Not the best closing line but, given the circumstances, there could NOT be any other way to close this out.
Your thoughts/opinions are welcome
It’s not like they haven’t seen lines of people waiting patiently, and yet a line of people waiting to vote seems to be a formidable force that they get maimed by! Is this what a true democracy looks like? Even in the USA, we have scragglers who don’t show up to vote but that’s a very minute part of the population. When a city , the size of Bangalore, shows only 50% of its population votes, this does show a systemic problem. I would venture a guess that the city is inhabited by a transient population that is unable to connect with the local representative. However, ideologies should dictate the vote not the person. A good person belonging to a corrupt political party will not be able to serve the population; on the other hand, a corrupt politician in a good party will feel the pressure to straighten up or leave.
There is a way to get everyone to vote In cities like Bangalore. Being a hitech city, it doesn’t take too much to connect the voting records to any organization’s H/R, payroll and finance departments. This would give the organization a view on whether, or not, their employees voted. Levy a fine on those who didn’t and you’ll see a marked improvement in voting numbers! Will organizations be amenable to this? It will take a lot of money to get this done and organizations might not be open to that.
Volunteers who have been working to get the common people to vote are distraught at the low turn out. To them all I can say is “you did all you could. Now we wait”! Not the best closing line but, given the circumstances, there could NOT be any other way to close this out.
Your thoughts/opinions are welcome
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