"UPA has disintegrated", L.K.Advani
"The UPA is still here", Prnab Mukherjee
"Sri Lankan issue is not a poll issue", M.Karunanidhi
"The PM belongs to the country and not any political party", Sonia Gandhi
Headlines such as these and their parallels will play that game of political football, again, after 5 years with the atmosphere becoming rife with speculation as to who will be and who won't. The prelude to the 15th General Elections has enveloped the nation and its voters into a feeling of responsibility (probably for the first time in decades?) The media coverage, the celebrity endorsements, the various campaigns run on social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut etc. all seem to be making one strong point:IF THE INDIAN VOTER DENIES HIMSELF HIS RIGHT TO VOTE, ON PURPOSE, THEN HE SHALL BE DENIED THE RIGHT TO COMPLAIN BY DEFAULTTelevision, is probably the most intimate media in today's world: it lets you and me take a closer look at that politician's face, lets us watch their reactions to questions that cannot be answered any other time, but NOW! Under such conditions, the present day politician can no longer be that arrogant Sarkar, whose decisions go unquestioned...he or she is held accountable, and that too on national television. And that makes the aspiring media person in me, feel fairly proud that she will be part of a process that truly is towards acheiving democracy in its fullest meaning.
If anyone thought social networking sites were a waste of time, well WAKE UP!!! Here is where today's youth and the newly tech-savvy politicians (read: L.K. Advani's photos and campaign slogans plastered on sites that are maximum visited by the Indian youth) congregate to converge that section of the society that has so far looked at politics as cheap playgrounds of the Indian-goon-turned-neta. To do what? VOTE this time around; select leaders based on merit and merit alone; make a difference that is the product of an informed decision.
Actor, Sanjay Dutt is not being allowed to contest elections, for he is behind all that charm, a convict in the 1993 Mumbai Blasts case; the BJP has come under severe criticism for having given tickets to controversial players like Neera Yadav, Manoj Pradhan and of course, the all infamous, Varun Gandhi; the Congress wasn't spared either for giving Jagdish Tytler a clean chit, that sparked off violent protests in Jalander.
Though it was in a situation that can only be described as Constitutional suicide, with the CEC Gopalswamy and one of the ECs Navin Chawla falling out in public, the EC has quite gallantly (in my opionion) restored its reputation in the minds of the Indian voter, that it still continues to be above suspicion. It is commendable that the EC has played its role of monitoring the elections, the candidates, and their conduct during the run up to the elections, without bias. Every once in a few days we hear of the EC slapping charges against this or that politician, with Varun Gandhi being the most controversial and P.Chidambaram being the most recent.
Are these incidents evidences that suggest that, at least a part of those billion votes we constitute, have woken up? Is this a step towards cleaner politics? Have campaigns like the TATA Tea, 'Jaago re' and the 'Lead India' campaign by Times of India actually had an effect on the young mind that is you and me?
Practically speaking, even if these campaigns do have an effect on us youngsters, how many of us have our voter ids? How is that deficit going to be tackled? In this aspect, I would like to mention here that my college, M.O.P. Vaishnav College for Women, Chennai came up with this project in tandem with the Election Commission in the state, called 'Youth for Democracy'. The prime aim of this project, during its launch, was to provide voter ids to students of the college. And, now a year after its launch, the project has been taken outside to other neighbouring colleges, too.
If we can ensure that every Indian citizen has a voter id, and if it can be made compulsory (in the true sense of the word) for all to vote, that by itself will sort out most of our election time confusions. Today, in my opinion, coalition politics has become the dictum because, that population which does vote, stands beyond further division or cohesion, over the past decades (thanks to the efficient way in which the politicians have played vote bank politics).
At least at the eleventh hour, will the middle class Indian, who so far refrained from voting, and from not complaining, wake up, look around and make that decision that will raise India in the eyes of the International community? We all can do so if we want our country to have leaders who can help us forage with pride and dignity into a world that is advancing every single minute. Only by electing becoming leaders who will be the nation's face world over, are we going to be a true democracy, leave alone being the largest.
Pseudo-nerd is waiting for that damn voter-id card to show up!!! :)
Wants to vote!!!! :D
Out in the open...alone on a road though there are hordes of human figures walking similar, yet distinctively different paths...Rugged plains of my lifeland led me to a place of rare beauty....
Losing a few petals, or in our case a few battles, means no shame...we're but one kind...what is it to lose when there is no game?
Peace is probably the trophy....who wants it though? Half the time we lose sight of it...drowning in our own misconstrued idea of what Peace, probably is...wallowing in the darkness of place that reeks violence and misunderstanding...
Can we let that line of barrier stop clouding our mind's vision for a second? Why do lines drawn by births mean so much more than the persons born?
