Up until last
Sunday, the roads of Bangalore were getting an overhaul with flawless blacktops.
Power cuts, which usually last for atleast an hour, had their duration suddenly
reduced to just a few minutes. Infact, even during rains power cuts were
stopped which by Bangalore’s standard was a huge change. But that was before
the elections. Now that the great battle is done and dusted with, things are
pretty much back to normal or shall I say abnormal. It is now the time for one set
of ‘leaders’ to give way to another. In
the political wrestling area the incumbent government has been knocked out and
the proverbial bell of change has rung. It’s the time for change, a change that
would ensure a better future for the state? Well, certainly seems overly optimistic to think so!
Voting, they say,
is the power we have in our hands to change things. But do we really or are we
made to believe so? Is it just a romantic notion? I am still contemplating the answer;
I honestly don’t know what to believe! I haven’t voted in my life ever so far.
First I wasn’t eligible and then when I became eligible I was moving around so
much that I didn’t know where to apply. And if at all at the time of elections
I would still be living at the same place. When I did get one, it was of my
home town where I only spend ten days on an average each year. Surely, I can’t
vote using that in the current city I am living in. Though there is a process in
place to transfer the card from my home state to where I am currently but we
all know how efficient or effective the ‘processes’
in our country are!
I know I can’t
complain about what is wrong with Government if I don’t exercise my basic
right. Isn’t that the rhetoric these days - if
you don’t vote you don’t get to criticize? Seems sensible enough but the
arm chair activist in me is never deterred and I end up criticizing the system
again and again. Well my bad, I guess!
A well meaning
colleague of mine asked me why I chose not to exercise my right, my power. But
honestly do we really have the power? Do we really? I don’t mind doing
something for the society by trying to change their outlook in the way they
treat women or in the way we perceive each other. But I find it hard to believe
that any government I chose or vote for would come ever to the rescue of the
common man. Perhaps I am naïve or just plain stupid! But I just don’t have the
faith that change could be affected by a political party hence I don’t feel
particularly charged to vote!
Why didn’t I vote?
Well I don’t know may be I am just lazy! On a serious note, I am sure there are
many like me in the same conundrum. We grow up in one city and then move
elsewhere for studies. Then we move around more for jobs and by the time we
settle anywhere chances are that a good part of a decade is spent without ever walking
in to a polling booth. Addresses in documents keep changing and sometimes it is
difficult to find one that would suffice as the proof. Yes, we could very well
get the voter’s id in our native place. But since we hardly live there, the
entire purpose of the card is defeated. We ofcourse could transfer it to the
place we are living in currently but that again is a herculean task just like
getting any document from the wonderful and
efficient government channels in our country usually is!
Yes, I am to
blame. The common man, sorry woman, in me detests going to a government office
and running behind a tobacco chewing
antagonistic worker for getting my work done. The ordinary person in me is
scared of deliberating the bribe to
offer after which my work would be done faster by the man behind the desk. Yes,
I could raise all the complaints, approach the right channels but does that
really work in our country? For those that think that these things do not
happen, well they are either living in utopia or are local residents or are extremely
lucky. Say I go through all these, what is the guarantee that the person I vote
for is actually any better? Skeptical I know!
But nevertheless I
want to try and get my Voter’s id card transferred to where I currently live. Perhaps
my voting will make a difference or perhaps it wouldn’t. I certainly am
inclined to go with the latter, negative outlook I agree! But then what’s
really the difference between buffoons of
different garden varieties at the helm? Well atleast to the garden variety arm chair activist in me,
they all seem alike!
