If there is one thing that a modern Indian is constantly pressed for, it is time. Twenty-four swift hours have to be split between work, family, recreation, cricket, snooping on the neighbour and other such demanding pursuits. Expectedly then, when the office declares a holiday on election day, it becomes a reason to rejoice. More so, if the windfall happens to coincide with a weekend. Casting one’s vote doesn’t usually feature among the top things on our mind in such a wake.
The reasons for such apathy towards the election process are plentiful and often logical. ‘Is there even a choice? It’s the same with every political party – tall pre-poll promises followed by five years of inaction.’ ‘What difference will one single vote make anyway?’ or ‘I haven’t even had the time to get my voters card made’ are excuses that begin to do the rounds as soon as the polling dates are announced.
We all know that a vote is our right, a means to make ourselves heard that the constitution bestows upon us. We also know that several past electoral contests have been decided with such wafer-thin margins that a single family making the effort to cast their vote could have made all the difference. But are these reasons enough for us to brave the heat, travel to a polling booth, stand in a queue and cast our vote? Perhaps not, for the cynicism about politics and politicians that remains ingrained within us is not easy to allay.
So then, the question remains – why should we take the pains to cast our votes?
Well, the answer lies in the choice between being involved in shaping our own tomorrow versus sitting on the fence and allowing things to chart their own course. It is about being more involved and having real opinions rather than posting comments on social media with the sole objective of garnering more likes.
It is a known fact that anything that we invest behind calls for a greater involvement on our part. If we invest in the shares of a particular company, we follow its progress and keep ourselves informed about matters that might affect its market capitalisation. Just as when we spend time in going for a morning walk or doing yoga every morning, we follow the movements of the weighing scale with an expectant sincerity.
Similarly, casting our vote is an investment we make to buy ourselves a real stake in the policies and actions of the country’s lawmakers over the course of the next five years. And with this stake comes awareness and participation, not just the kind that we find spilling all over social media, but one that can hold accountable the individual and parties we entrust with our votes.
True, a single vote wouldn’t make much of a difference, but then imagine what a sizeable group of well-informed and involved Indians can achieve for the country.
Anurag Anand is the author of the exciting political thriller, The Assassination of Rajat Gandy. Set in the backdrop of the oncoming general elections, the book explores the clandestine closed-door machinations and nexuses that make politics as we know it today. A gruesome murder on the streets of New Jersey, a communal uprising in Bhopal and a spate of unusual happenings in cyberspace – are these a series of disparate events, or are they the moving parts of a much larger and sinister conspiracy?
Get your copy of The Assassination of Rajat Gandy at
https://www.amazon.in/Assassination-Rajat-Gandy-Anurag-Anand/dp/9385854712/
Comments