We are all hankering after several issues with our politics and yet we don't even know whether the large majority of our country men and women have even heard about these ongoing conversations amongst the elite of this nation.
Does an average voter even in Shahdara, forget about Jodhpur, even know that there is serious talk going on in Delhi about introducing the right to reject all candidates who stand for election with a None of the Above option? And why should it be "None of the Above" and not "None of the Below"?
Do the people at the India International Centre or at the Election Commission or wherever else understand that these days there are no ballot papers circulated amongst the voters and that when one goes to actually vote on the EVMs, its quite overwhelming a task to read through all the names and then press the button. If one starts to read through all the signs and names, it would take a very literate voter at least 5 minutes to go through all the names and then press the button. Do we know that the electoral officer sitting there would not permit each individual voter to go through each name? If a very literate person would take that long, imagine how intimidating it would be for our illiterate masses to have to go through a large number of pictures and images searching for their candidates unless they happen to belong to a specific and popular political party.
Do we know that EVMs, at least the one where I voted, don't have candidate names in alphabetical order? Instead, someone decided that the Congress, BJP, BSP and SP will constitute the top order and they are all there in the beginning itself. So, if I had to look for an independent candidate who perhaps deserved my vote on account of being honest or simply because he is standing on behalf of Election Watch, it would be quite a task to search for his name. In fact I know of some well educated professional people who went looking for his name but when they were at the EVM, they were overwhelmed at the sight of so many names and signs and then spending less than a minute staring at the EVM, they quickly went ahead and pressed the button for their second choice lest the Election Officer wonder why they were taking so much time. Needless to add, the second choice inevitably fell on a candidate from one of the organized political parties. If this happens in Lucknow, imagine what would be happening in the rural areas.
Further, it wasn't the heat that kept a lot of people away from the elections. It was the loss of interest. We can't keep saying that our votes are very valuable and then imagine that voters would part with their "valuable" votes for less than valuable candidates. Have we ever heard of someone giving away his or her "valuables" to a thief just like that?
For the election commission to keep saying that there are far too many people in this country so election after election they will continue to have problems with the electoral rolls, well sorry, but that is the truth and its not a secret. We have all known this fact since ages. So wake up, Election Commission. Start working now so that such problems are avoided in the next election. But guess what, they too are Indians like the rest of us. And we all know in our hearts that Indians don't like working unless they have to.
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