A vote cast without serious thought could ruin the future of a billion

The poor / low income members of the Indian society are not sure of any physical or social security. The politicians have successfully inherited the divide and rule game plan from the British. No efforts are being spared to divide Indians in the name of caste/ creed/religion/region/sects. The law and order machinery having lost its bite, the criminals and those corrupting on the social wealth have risen very close to the political masters. The democracy that Indian elders had secured with hard sacrifices now requires even more sacrifice to preserve it.
Most of the Indian people have today lost faith in the Parliamentary democracy. Rather the floor of parliament as well as the legislative assemblies have lost the grace and honour. A common man is often found sermoning that no sensible or respectable person would prefer joining a political party and saying that politics is a dirty profession. Even many literate urban often boast that they do not vote in elections. But it is not wise to leave political affairs of India to those who practice dirty and dishonest code of practice. They are to be either corrected or replaced. Any how in a democracy unless one cares for others he will not be safe. A vote when cast without serious thought could ruin the future of a billion Indians. And a wisely cast vote would make India strongest of all.
All well meaning people must not stay on the side lines. Rather they should come forward.
India is no doubt the largest democracy of the world. Indians wrote a Constitution them self for their own use. The Constitution has gone through nearly a century of amendments since 1950. One would not see quarter the number of cycles in a street in 1970s as the number of cars one would see parked in the streets in 2009.The number of schools, colleges and the hospitals has grown faster than the population. The production of food grains, milk, fruits, vegetables and consumer durables too has grown faster than the population. Exports of materials and services from India too have grown. Material wealth of India has risen due to exploitation of national mineral/ water reserves, through loans & assistance from WB,ADB,IMF etc. But inspite of all this the people are not happy. The common man is exploited. Corruption on government funds has grown many folds. The law and order machinery is not functioning with results, all complain of not receiving justice in time, the welfare schemes are non yielding and have encouraged those who adopt unfair means, the voluntary sector ( better known today as NGO sector ) too has lost its credibility, legislature has lost its sanctity ( extreme could be seen the way the Rajay Sabha ---Upper House of Parliament , and Vidhan Parishad - Legislative Council are misused by the political parties to make entries for family friends or those defeated in Lok Sabha or Assembly elections, those who have no special intellectual or professional outstanding qualification but have made crores of rupees through what ever means possible .
The common man is put under material and mental pressures by the politicians after every five years to secure the reins of power. The foreign debt is growing and India is being exploited by US /UK/EU. No doubt the judiciary and the political leadership is theoretically expected to settle the things right. But under the circumstances the Indian people (society) for better self governance will have to take up the corrective measures at the voter level. No doubt since the damage has been large it may take min five years of sustained honest efforts for some visible accountable improvements. No doubt permanent solution lies in some long term measures. But still some short term measures too could be taken to see that some good quality people enter the Lok Sabha after April/ May 2009 elections.
Immediate short term measures could be : 1. dare evaluate the contesting candidate on the basis of his earlier performance and the reputation at the social level (2). motivate your neighbor to undo the candidates who depend upon criminal muscle power /the caste/ religion / money power to mis carry the less aware innocent voters (3) EC / Government must provide all fair and easy means for a voter to reach a polling booth ;citizens should report unfair means adopted by any one to EC (4) inform others about any criminal record of some candidate. Incase you feel scared, atleast you do not vote for such a tainted candidate (5).Pass on awareness with concern to the rural, uneducated, economically weak and socially innocent voter (6).Social voluntary organisations should spread the security and support information amongst the voters (7) Motivate the disinterested voter to vote (8) Be brave to provide social security to weaker sections so that they vote to choice (9) Make people to come out in majority and undue the pressure of votes purchased in the name of caste / region /religion/poverty.
Selfishness in Indian people has grown. The subsidies and the corrupt practices have eaten through the State tax revenue and foreign aid. The common man has only been loaded with new taxes much larger than the subsidies and support prices he gets. He is innocent .Instead of knowing the Democratic system more closely, the common rural / voter who forms 70 % of vote bank still considers a MLA or MP like a Monarch of feudal system. . Money and liquor so easily buy the vote of the economically weaker people. In some areas people flock to vote under the pressure of goons / musclemen / even liquor. This shows that it is hunger that matters more to economically poor masses and it is physical security that matters more to those who can not hope any security through the existing law and order machinery of the government. Therefore, need is to carry on the corrective measures even beyond the 2009 Lok Sabha Elections . Long term measures would surely involve corrections that would need actions at the legislative and executive levels as well as judiciary. Success would rest in raising a sound social order percolating deep into rural India and some electoral reforms in our constitutional system including some constitutional corrections.
LONG TERM Approach would involve : 1.Voter citizen has to come forward to root out dishonesty as majority of the "vote seeker" would never work for corrections. (2). The candidates for contesting elections are thrust on the voter by the political parties. Money and muscle power that the aspiring ticket seeker can display too plays a major role. Political parties need be forced to select the candidates with the involvement of panchayat level party members for MLA and Block level for the MP. Rather Party workers must demand selection of candidates. (3.(a)Democracy in political parties should also be enforced by law. Organizational elections should be held after every 3 years by recognized Political parties with in 6 months of the earlier term ended Constituency/ Distt/ State/ Regional/ National level.. Election commission / Parliament should make such law. Even national level parties are getting loaded with leaders who have no base in masses. Leaders are being thrust from elite hierarchy and the common man has lost faith in democracy. Let Congress take lead. (4) The voluntary social organisation working in the fields of education / awareness / welfare / health/education should approach the interior India . Government should provide them material, physical and social security against the criminal and tainted elements working for the conventional so called " elite leaders."(5).Damage done to democracy will have to be explained at the door steps of illiterate poor Indian because of (a) Low voter turn out (b) Criminalization of politics (c) the caste and religious divides that the elite leadership promotes more amongst the economically weak community and ( d ) neglect of national issues by local leaders. Rather the common has to be warned about the ultimate dangers. As long as the movement will not be taken to the villages tab tak janta jagae gee nahin. Lok tantra badee kurbaniyon ke baad milaa hai ab esae kurbani de kar hi bachana hai. Rather job can only be accomplished by bringing reforms and awareness at the lower levels. The crown is showing no intention for mends. (6 ) In India voter turn out may be low but is not poor. Voter percentage is much higher than urban educated areas in the rural and backward areas In the urban educated and better informed areas too the voter turnout is very low. Nov/ Dec2008 J&K elections have demonstrated the desire of Indian voter to participate in elections. The thing that should concern us more is the importance of sound, serious and honest elections as they concern security and integrity of a Nation/ Country like India..(7).Other thing that need serious consideration is material and physical security to a common voter citizen against the pressures of rich, musclemen and criminal- politician nexus. Voter is to day terrorised. Voters are terrorized and exploited mentally and physically. Regular close security has to be provided before the elections to cultivate faith of the common man in the law and order machinery. Material and social security has to be ensured even after elections to villages for atleast 3 months after elections. (8) Voter has very little access to the personal information regarding the contesting candidates , particularly for Lok Sabha. Election Commission of India must evolve a method for distribution of hand bills in the constituency mentioning all the particulars of the qualification, assets and any criminal record of the contesting candidate. (9) (a).It has been observed that money power too has started playing major role in nomination of candidates for Rajay Sabha and Vidhan Legislative Councils ( Vidhan Parishads). The objective with which these superior advisory institutions were created appears lost in most of the cases. (i) Any person who has lost a Lok sabha Election or Assembly Election should not be nominated to upper house with in a period less than one year.(ii ) Candidate elected to a State Assembly Seat should not be nominated for Rajay Sabha or Lok Sabha Election unless he has worked as an MLA for atleat one year. He should resign from MLA or MLC seat before the day of voting for Rajay Sabha or Lok Sabha.(b) No Government servant who retires from government service or takes voluntary retirement should be allowed to contest elections to Parliament or state legislature with in two years of his retirement on the ticket of a political party.(c) (i) There is a need to delete the provision of registering the name parentage voter number and signatures in form 17C before election officer by those who want to register that they do not want to vote for any of the candidate seeking election since it is against the principle if secrecy and has not been used by the people in significant numbers.
(ii) In case some one does not want to vote in favour of some particular candidate or has information about his criminal/ not suitable record he should be allowed to vote against that candidate so as to reduce the votes secured by that candidate by one. EVM could have three buttons..YES…No… Not INTERESTED.
(d) In the present system the candidate securing the highest number of votes is declared elected even if he has secured less than one sixth of the total votes polled or some times even less than 10% of the polled votes. It is unfair. Rather (i) .winning candidate must secure more than 50% of the polled votes (ii) in case it does not happen method of added weightage could be adopted. (iii) the votes polled by last candidate be added to the votes polled by the first candidate and the votes polled by the last but one could be added to 2nd candidate. (iV) in case still the number is not more than 50% polled votes for any of the two, then the votes polled by the remaining candidates be added further to the first and 2nd candidates in the same manner . (10) projects executed by the State should not be projected through advertisements as individual achievements of the politicians by making payments from state exchequer ; no welfare programme or project or scheme should be named after a leader of a political party as it has so far exploited the innocence of rural India more to the advantage of only Congress Party and all such programmes / schemes /projects should be renamed . (11 ) Suggestions are also coming for evolving a method to call back a MP /MLA when he does not perform or gets involved in criminal / corruption cases ; enforcing upon the political parties to declare their alliances before the elections along with pre decided CMP : for fixing maximum age limit for a MLA /MP (do not appear that wise) : setting educational qualification (too needs to be debated ) . Any how in a democracy unless one cares for others he will not be safe. A vote when cast without serious thought could ruin the future of a billion Indians.
.*( Daya Sagar Senior Coloumnist on Kashmir affairs and a social activist dayasagr@yahoo.co.uk alookthroughthemist.blogspot.com)