As the responsible citizen of my country, I have the right to vote. I have the right to decide who, I think, will live up to all that he or she promises during these rallies that happen before the elections. Most importantly, I have the right to decide who will be capable enough to undo the previous guy's mistakes and still have time to make some of his own.
Over the past week or two, all sorts of gimmicks have been put to practice to garner the largest number of votes. Now that I am a Med Student and I know a thing or two about the Healthcare system that works ( or doesn't work) in the country, I find it so hilarious to hear advertisements on the radio about how that same healthcare system is bringing such a change in people's lives. To give an example: There is something known as the National Rural Health Mission that basically caters to the health of the rural people. There are some services that are given free of cost to the people. Anganwadis are created in villages to ensure that the literacy of the children improves. That's the theory. The reality is that the services are there, but the providers are not. The Anganwadis are there but the teachers or the ASHAs (Accredited Social Health Activist) are not. But that is obviously not shown in the advertisements. Instead, you hear a woman talking in the rural twang, praising the government for giving health services worth 3.5 lac free of cost to her child and saving his life. She will give her vote to the ruling party, because after all, they gave her that precious child back.
Now, think about it. If the Government starts giving out services worth 3.5 lac to each and every such individual, India would get bankrupt within days ( any person who knows our population and the fraction tagged as BPL will agree). But, this is what an advertisement is about. And this is just one example. Every party involved in elections carries out the same kind of propaganda. They pay people to come be a part of their rallies and shout out slogans. They come up with incidents involving their leaders that will bring sympathy votes. And then, there are some really characterless creatures who wire the EVMs wrong so that their party wins.
The main responsibility of the voter is to sift through all of this and make his vote count. The person he elects should have his full faith. That person should be capable enough to run true to the trust shown by that voter. After all, elections come only once in 5 years. One mistake is going to turn the next five years of your civic life into hell.
But, there isn't always a good and a bad. Lately, in politics, there has been a bad and a worse. So ultimately, you vote because it is your right. And you vote for the person who you think will make lesser mistakes than the other. The past year, a lot of things have happened. They brought out the real faces of a lot of people. Some of those were ok. Most of them weren't. What I learnt from that year was that, it's too much to ask for a sudden change. But, there is a need for change. And this election, I hope our votes prove that. Every vote given counts. After all, it shows what the people of this country really want. I sensed it last year, and I hope today's votes show it, that that want has changed...
Vote guys. Only your votes can make the real difference.
Over the past week or two, all sorts of gimmicks have been put to practice to garner the largest number of votes. Now that I am a Med Student and I know a thing or two about the Healthcare system that works ( or doesn't work) in the country, I find it so hilarious to hear advertisements on the radio about how that same healthcare system is bringing such a change in people's lives. To give an example: There is something known as the National Rural Health Mission that basically caters to the health of the rural people. There are some services that are given free of cost to the people. Anganwadis are created in villages to ensure that the literacy of the children improves. That's the theory. The reality is that the services are there, but the providers are not. The Anganwadis are there but the teachers or the ASHAs (Accredited Social Health Activist) are not. But that is obviously not shown in the advertisements. Instead, you hear a woman talking in the rural twang, praising the government for giving health services worth 3.5 lac free of cost to her child and saving his life. She will give her vote to the ruling party, because after all, they gave her that precious child back.Now, think about it. If the Government starts giving out services worth 3.5 lac to each and every such individual, India would get bankrupt within days ( any person who knows our population and the fraction tagged as BPL will agree). But, this is what an advertisement is about. And this is just one example. Every party involved in elections carries out the same kind of propaganda. They pay people to come be a part of their rallies and shout out slogans. They come up with incidents involving their leaders that will bring sympathy votes. And then, there are some really characterless creatures who wire the EVMs wrong so that their party wins.
The main responsibility of the voter is to sift through all of this and make his vote count. The person he elects should have his full faith. That person should be capable enough to run true to the trust shown by that voter. After all, elections come only once in 5 years. One mistake is going to turn the next five years of your civic life into hell.
But, there isn't always a good and a bad. Lately, in politics, there has been a bad and a worse. So ultimately, you vote because it is your right. And you vote for the person who you think will make lesser mistakes than the other. The past year, a lot of things have happened. They brought out the real faces of a lot of people. Some of those were ok. Most of them weren't. What I learnt from that year was that, it's too much to ask for a sudden change. But, there is a need for change. And this election, I hope our votes prove that. Every vote given counts. After all, it shows what the people of this country really want. I sensed it last year, and I hope today's votes show it, that that want has changed...
Vote guys. Only your votes can make the real difference.
1 comment:
Everything you say is true. Be smart while casting your vote and all that. But hey, all those candidates contesting the elections are smart, too. Smarter than the general population, in fact.
How many candidates turn up at YOUR doorstep to convince you to vote for them? And how many turn up at the doorstep of all the people who are BPL and pull off cheap gimmicks to garner votes? They know exactly who to go to for getting the votes.
And votes, staying in power and other selfish goals is all that these "leaders" care about anyway.
So, they know that the poor and the illiterate will cast their votes blindly. Which means, to get more votes, they need more poor and illiterate people to exist in this world because the educated class is not going to be affected (i hope) by all these elections gimmicks. Meaning that they DO NOT want the Anganwadis to work, because if they did, people would actually start THINKING, and votes would be so hard to get.
If making the healthcare schemes work, providing education, improving the literacy rates and making any kind of progress is going to empower the people to think and make wise decisions, these current politicians will no longer stay in power. So why would they want to implement these schemes in the first place?
Its a vicious circle that we're stuck in. Corrupt politicians feeding off illiterates who in turn vote for the corrupt politicians. Its simple, really. They're just saving themselves from getting sacked. At the price of poor citizens who have no idea that they're being taken along for the ride.
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