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What is the reason for pathetic voting % in Bangalore south?
Written By E.R. Ramachandran - 27 April, 2009
Bangalore Democracy Elections Voter ID suggestion Election Commission Everything else
What is the reason for abysmal voting pattern in Bangalore which must be rated from 'poor' to 'terrible'. Despite tremendous efforts on creating awareness on 'Need to vote' in both electronic and Print media, voters especially the urban middle and upper middle class , who complain' maximum 'on any issue ,have stayed away from exercising their right to vote.
This is a serious matter which needs introspection. where have things gone wrong?
Times of India launched a major campaign on 'Lead India', proclaimed a great success, but citizens just do not care.
Tatas launched' Aap Sorahe Hain' campaign for months and its impact in urban area has been a disaster.
What is the solution?
Why not make voting compulsory?
COMMENTS
Srivathsa- Here are my thoughts.
ananth.bangalore - 30 April, 2009 - 06:42
Srivathsa, I did not, for one minute, think dictatorship is the answer. It is not. No system that does not involve the people at its helm can be successful. A country is too complex at many layers for any individual.
The frustration stems out of the realization that the government and its administration does not do what is in the best interests of the people. Whoever formed the constitution clearly did half a job. The system now exists in such a way where it clearly avoids any kind of accountability from it's side. That’s exactly dictatorship. In India, we believe we are the big democratic country because we have been told so; the system mocks democracy by using some of democracies' way of working and by effectively cheating the people of any real democracy. Democracy now, in people's mind, has taken the form of such confusion about the limits of liberty that it is like a stray dog without a leash. And a leash does not mean anti-democracy. Democracy still should mean 'by the people, for the people and of the people'. Now Indian democracy is clearly run by the opportunist neta in power, making sure systems that evaluate his actions and performance does never enter the existing system, which by the way is an unsaid unanimous agreement between anyone who is concerned with Indian politics- whether it is the ruing party or the opposition. Democracy in India is a collective dictatorship, the power being shared comfortably by few dictators in their own right and the collective work is made to look like democracy. Indian netas behave like swarms of bugs- doing what all the other bugs are doing and hence ensuring its existence. By the way, who are the people in the scene? Obviously they are completely absent. The people only believe they are in charge because they vote. What a laugh.
The issue is much more deadly and critical than any dictatorship can offer. In India, there is no Sadam Hussain to be shot dead to relieve the people or rejuvenate the system. In India, there is no Mussolini or Hitler to target. Cunningly, the target is a swarm of people. I know it is very negative to only complain and not offer constructive solutions, but, alas, i do not see any constructive solution- not that i consider myself eligible to offer one or more. I wish there were Bapus, Nehrus and Netajis- but a version of them who would like to see the complete system, not like the half-baked ones we had. Half-baked because they had their intention and heart in place, but clearly they were hardly the people who were organized sociological engineers eligible to craft a complete system. Indian democracy is like a treatment offered by the nurse for a complicated ailment since the need for the doctor was not known. India is a hospital full of these nurses, with no doctors. The biggest hospital for sure, but a half-baked one at that.
All attempts to remedy the situation without thinking through the complete process and follow-up will be in vain. What I think might happen- On one hand, the Indian system will constantly try bringing in deterioration and, on the other, the commercialization will constantly try bringing in development. When the later fails to the former, a civil non-cooperation movement will be inevitable (obviously opposed with military suppression). The results of such a struggle will what determine where we go from there. If we willingly, as a collective community, will not set things right for ourselves, internally we will have to go back to where we started from (square one) and start afresh. And that start- if that is also half-baked, we will see the same cycle repeat.
idontspam - 27 April, 2009 - 19:51
I agree with Syed, the need of the hour is plain and simple "go out and vote" to become a habit and culture. Otherwise since you dont care, like Devesh says accept the outcome and quit complaining.
You cant force people but you can appeal to their concience. Publish area wise statistics, get as small as possible on exposing the voting percentages and publish the figures. Put embarassing colors to indicate apathy. Hurt the concience so people take more interest in voting. Other than that dont waste time on extraordinary measures, accept the verdict of the people who cared to vote
nl.srinivas - 27 April, 2009 - 05:17
Allowance for accuracy/absence
idontspam - 27 April, 2009 - 05:26
I am hoping this is 44% of the voters list and not the population. Giving allowance of 2% for accuracy of the list and 8% for people like me who are temporarly out of country. I think it is still pathetic.
EC must look at providing voting patterns by area, after the results are out. all they need is a spreadsheet. It may dispel a lot of prejudices and throw some surprises? There is more guesswork in the below article
ananth.bangalore - 27 April, 2009 - 12:00
i know i reflect many people's attitude. I speak with anyone possible about the importance of voting/not voting and lots of them share these thoughts (so these are pertaining to a certain group of young, steadfast, pig-headed, hardworking, angry, ethical and 'need-answers-to-the-past. Cant-let-go.' people.)-
a. A lot of people carry a lot of anger to great depths (i tend to think the revelation was almost like there was a kind of civil disobedience movement). Many are bordering that limit- caught up between wanting to do something good and being angry at the hopelessness.
b. One wants answers- nobody cares who is in the government, (one can understand the apathy roots from the hopelessness) all that is needed is answers and accountability of everything in the past. Any government can/should work towards providing answers as the primary eligibility to remain in power. Why is Karnataka one of the most corrupt states in India? Why are the same roads that are good being re-laden with tar and the bad ones forgotten? Why should the PM dare to say "i will turn around the economy in 100 days" and think people are fools that they don’t know he has had many of those 100 days? What happened to Sri Ram Sene's cases?
c. Who does the government report to? And what is the reporting system? Is there a system of report card that the people can fill and remove representatives from power anytime and not wait for the next five years- only to transfer the power to the next irresponsible nincompoop?
d. These people want bigger changes- changes to the system of electing our representatives, changes to make possible continuous evaluation of these representatives, changes to systems for removing and transferring roles of representatives, a sound method to evaluate work done by these representatives, publicly accessible 'report card' of performance, and scientific approach to solving problems for the greater good.
e. Any voted representative/government is obviously elected to place because they subscribe to the existing system. And that’s not ok. All these representatives need to retire at 50. People can’t seem to understand how normal people should retire at 58/60 and these netas can go on and on. All these netas also need to be a minimum management graduates. What- are we fools to hand over any serious management to people who are illiterates?
f. These politicians go to any extent to get to power- i have received some SMSs and recorded message campaigns after the deadline for campaign- from BJP. If these guys can step out of rules to get to power, what will they not do after getting there?
g. Student's marks and voting- how are they related? So in effect, my son/daughter gets to get better marks than the deserving better guy in his class just becasue i contributed to his marks? That is not evaluating his capability, that is mere stupidity and completely unfair. This is similar to distributing goodies and booze to get votes. This will make sure that sensible parent's children go on the war path and nothing more. Are we not ashamed of such stupidity?
The existing ‘half- democracy’ kind of governance is the bane of India.
Who believes these necessary and needed changes can be brought about by any elected government?- please stand up.
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