Vote or Veto!

An old adage goes by, “When you have nothing constructive to do, you blame others (read opposition here).” Well, this election 2009 is a testament of the same age old adage. I woke up on 23.04.2009, in typical Tata Tea Jago Re advert style, had a big cuppa and got dressed in a Jeans and a Tee, all pure white, put on my white shoes (ahh, the election effect) and went near the polling booth.

Here in Maharashtra, things are pretty safe and liberal. We don’t worry about booth capturing or opposing party workers firing guns at each other, while voters die in the crossfire. All such incidences are restricted to verbal abuse. Voters die due to laughing their asses off at the curious demigods that are up on the dais, bombarding their oppositions to smithereens. Bank accounts, scams and what not. All facts are laid open.

So there I was, trying to get my polling booth number and my “voting cluster” number. The data was all electronic, just one search and all my details would be provided within a minute, but alas. The electricity went off. Load Sheding, they said. What a bloody joke, but heck, I will still get Rice at Rs. 3 a kilo and probably no computer at all if Samajwadi Party (Mulayam Singh) comes in majority, they are right in a way, what good is a computer when you do not have any electricity. But, one tech savvy girl opened her laptop and gave me the details. I was on my way to cast my vote.

The approach road must be a kilometer long (up to polling booth) and I think that is the longest walk, on a pot-holed road - The hands that Hol(e)d us, I have taken in past five years. Life I felt was similar to casting a vote. You made your choices based on available facts and stuck with them, five years at a time I guess in this case. Anti incumbency is thus your shift from a choice to another one. 

I kept thinking not a single politician this time talked about Sadak, Pani, Bijli, Development, Infrastructure, Rescession, Equity bourse crisis, Terrorism, Pakistan, Proxy wars, wage goods, Train bombings, Fidayeen attacks, economy meltdown and steps to curb it. Instead, ugly potshots were made at each other and all became a laughing stock, or were we fooled? And for the next five years we would be the laughing stock?

The media played a pivotal role in this election. They completely diverted from the orthodox role of presenting plain facts, without prejudice; to totally writing biased articles and favoring their sponsor parties; all being an utter farce and a pseudo liberal and pseudo secular attempt.

While the politicians of the days of yore instilled Nationalist feelings in masses, the joke for a coalition, mainly, third front & fourth front kept saying that all will sit on table, once the results are out and decide who the best candidate for Prime Minister-ship would be : that boat is surely sinking. Politics of convenience, they say. It’s a politician eat politician world it seems.

While MunnaBhai MBBS series were good movies, the TADA acquitted turned politician was totally a joke. Sanjay Dutt said that police beat him for 3.5 years because his mother was a Moslem! No Dude, they beat you because you were hiding an illegal firearm that can kill 30 people in a jiffy. They call it AK-47. But of course he was carrying it to protect his family, from the Russians.

We saw A.R Rahman getting Oscar for not that cool a song (he has made some brilliant numbers in the past) and Ze Congress picked that song as their campaign starter. ‘Jai Ho’. BJP saw the irony in all of it and made a parody – ‘Bhay Ho…phir bhi Jay Ho’. Shiv Sena retaliated as well with their very own regional hit, ‘Kai Ho’.  I kept feeling this whole concept of alliances among various parties inculcates a party jumping baboon brigade. And such baboons are rising in numbers. People in Himachal Pradesh think they (le baboons - its french) are becoming a menace and Govt. should put a leash on them.

By the time this thought had come to me, I was smiling to myself and had reached the voting booth. The queue was very small. Only couple of people ahead of me; apparently the voter turnout in Maharashtra (except Bombay/ New Bombay areas) was good in phase II polls. 55%. The dude put on the ink on my finger and I stood behind that wooden board covered bench.

I felt powerful for brief moment of time. In a sinister way, it resembled what Spiderman said, “With great power comes great responsibility”. I knew just voting would not change the system in a very productive way and It would take a little more efforts, on each individual to do their part and create that required thrust, a change would then be inevitable.

I pushed the button. Heck, at least that was a start. I cast my vote. The question is, Will you?