A farce named Election… or is it an ideal process turned dirty?

Elections in Bangalore concluded recently. As all the usual elections, there were huge political rallies all over Karnataka, lots of promises to the public and many allegations were exchanged. The political parties were busy trying to earn some mileage over the others and woo the voters.

In the meanwhile the Election commission was working overtime to keep a check on the election procedures and keeping a strict vigil to avoid any malpractices or voters influencing tactics. The illegal liquor truckloads were being caught every now and then while illegally stored huge numbers of saris and TV sets were uncovered every alternate day. Certainly no political party was taking the Karnataka elections lightly. There were huge stakes involved and it showed.

I had been busy shifting the whole day on the Election day and hence decided to take a worthwhile break and visit the humble parlor. While I was there I overheard the cleaning lady talking about her election experience. She was happy, as her vote had fetched her more than Rs. 200! She lives in a slum and all the political parties had been making rounds of their colony and giving them some money for voting to a political party. It seemed all the major political parties had distributed money in her area. The one who paid highest possibly got the maximum votes! Further they were taken and brought back in cars. While chit chatting with the parlor girl she also disclosed that they were being paid and offered lunch to come around the city and participate in rallies during the campaign.

It made me think was there any value and reason to our current election system. The basis on which this whole procedure was designed and the reasoning of empowering our country men – was it really being achieved? Were the words like landslide victory and people’s mandate hollow?

But it made me think, even after all such practices our state or general elections turnout is never beyond 60 percent. It means that if every citizen truthfully executes his simple duty of voting, we could get a reversed or at least a better mandate! Still the educated and rational thinkers of our country’s population choose to shy away from voting. Some feel it is a waste of time, some think it doesn’t make a difference, some are plain lazy while others think it is not a status symbol to be voting! For me, these people are equally guilty as are the political parties, of ruining a powerful tool if not more. In the current 60 percent the educated or middle class population does atleast 30 percent voting, so if the remaining 40 percent joined in this political nexus could be easily broken.
I can’t blame the poor woman for her rational. She knows well that after the elections these leaders wont visit her colony or think about her for the next 4 years. For her, survival is more important than virtue and hence she just made hay while the sun shines!