The None Of the Above anomaly

For now, not this one

In October last year, when the Election Commission first introduced the concept of ‘None of the above’ option for the general elections, I was so excited that, for a moment, I considered  endorsing a plain white flag in support of that option and start an election campaign of my own in constituencies stricken with “bad” candidates/options. Democracy never ceases to spread out and flex its muscles parading its presence from time to time, does it?

But the initial excitement was slowly replaced with rational, pragmatic outlook on the NOTA because as democracy does, and always will, it did not provide us with a satisfying complete meal here, but rather a humdrum Yeah-I-am-here-folks plate meal initially, which has to be subjected to thoughtful revisions before it can be considered to be thoroughly consumed by those seeking it.

The problem with None of the Above option too is simple, it is rendered pointless because of its clear gaping flaw: None of the above option cannot enforce a re-election in the case of it obtaining the majority of votes, i.e, the one who has obtained second highest majority, second to NOTA option, is the winner.

An argument can be made that NOTA option was never meant to be what-we-all-so-obviously-want-it to be but was only a means to culminate stats who were dissatisfied with those contesting.

But imagine this, how many of us (those like me), who, even though are dissatisfied, end up choosing from the lot rather than going for NOTA just to make sure that the vote does not go down the drain? So NOTA option does not even reflect that stat properly. In a way, NOTA’s presence this year round could do nothing but dilute the number of votes for particular candidates, and therein creating another problem for those few better-of-the-lot candidates contesting in elections. Hence, it serves practically no purpose for the 2014 General Elections just because it was introduced haphazardly without thoroughly examining the chinks in its armor.

But NOTA, if properly reviewed and implemented accordingly, in the coming years, can be the most powerful democratic tool handed to the common man in general elections, because it would then have the power to reject unworthy candidates, demanding and forcing political parties to field better leaders.

Till then, it is necessary that we ignore this option completely so as not to let our once-in-five-years democratic exercise to be a number in a pile of counter-productive statistical data. And as always, the best that can be done is to go through the list of candidates closely, scrutinize pros and cons of their promises and hope the best candidate represents you in the assembly and parliament.

Sin Vote Bank

I have read in The Hindu that out of 813.4 million registered voters, there are about 100 million new voters. 
Now this stat unnecessarily triggered few emotions.

Going back one year down the memory line, I look at an ultra optimistic myself (I still am, but just an optimist), where I believed and did not believe in few things. For example, I believed that there was a huge cast based vote bank existing in India and I Did Not believe that caste based vote bank existed among the urban voters, or to be more specific, I did not, for a second, believe that caste based vote bank existed in the urban youth. 

Well, coming back to the present day, The Naive Thinking Me's world has been thoroughly (and rightfully) rocked. Last few months of my personal experiences and observations have been a testimony to that. 

Caste. Caste? The name? The family line that we have been born into? Our ancestors? How trivial is that? If we closely (or to be frank just simply) reflect on the nature of these parameters that inadvertently influence things ranging from being a part of a fandom to taking sides during arguments to voting for any particular party, we would realize the pathetic hypocrisy we are all (Forgive me, I know that many of you give rat's ass about caste or cast-ism, but I am generalizing for the sake of convenience), at least many, are still a part of. 

To consider someone, or ourselves, to be a part of some superior higher class of human race, is an age old ignorance that has to be done away with. Just the idea that belonging to a particular caste is a source of pride, if anything, shows that we have not built on success stories for ourselves that we, as an individual, can be proud of. If only we can outsource half of the energy that is spent there on enhancing the individual skill set. If Only. 

What I am asking does not take much of our time or energy, its the simplest of things like talking to our friends on such issues, doing our bit in eradicating that thought from someone's head that can make a difference, at least somewhere in the 100 million new voters. 

Instead of just backing a politician that we have always respected (reasonably or unreasonably), we could look at the facts, virtues, positives, negatives aspects of all the politicians in the race and most importantly live in the present. It is so much better to soak in the existing sunlight and take battle sides fairly, rather than sulking in the shadows of former glory. 

The only blood that we actually share is that of our parents and direct siblings, and not with some leader, nor revolutionist, nor your close friend, who shares your last name. People are what they are and not what their names are. 

I somehow believe, with the existing trends that we are slipping away into (an not drawing away from) undeniable debauchery. Ten years from now, twenty years from now, when the fights move away from the presence of boundary lines on a map, we cannot blame some random politician for dropping a caste filled incendiary on us because we have let this live on. 

We today are letting the stub to swagger with us that could any day be lit up. Let us just give the existence of this disease a thought now before it consumes us up for good in times to come.

Let us all vote for someone who he/she actually is. 

Thank you
#LargestDemocracy #IndiaVotes #TheHindu #CasteBasedPolitics