Last Sunday, 28th march 2010, was the BBMP elections in Bangalore. Only 45% of the people turned out in spite of the election being held on a holiday. Nowadays there are so many polling centres and each centre has many electronic polling booths, so there is no question of waiting for long hours to vote. At the peak hour you might have to stand in the queue for about 15 min. Most of the educated people enjoyed their Sunday by spending their time in their couch talking politics and seeing the news for their election updates.
Should we Respect the people who don't vote?I personally don't consider them as citizens at all.
Indians never do what they should, but what they do is crib, crib and crib about their plight. I simply don't understand why people don't take up their responsibility but feel they have every right to blame the Government for not being responsible. If the government is not responsible, its because we have not elected the right people. Its a sad thing that the hindrance to the ever developing India is, it's own citizens who don't vote.
Indians sit, talk and argue about politics for hours but on the day it matters, they prefer not to be a part of it. I hate politics but I disgust people who don't vote. I am living in a nation that is not developed, where the taxes are high, the infrastructure is not good, the cities are not clean, and I am being taxed for everything I do, etc. it is because of people who don't vote.
My solution to this:
If every Indian were given a unique Id, just like how it is in many other countries a lot of problems can be resolved including this one. This unique number or alphanumeric Id should be centralised and any activity that is related to the government should be done through this. The centralised database should hold all the details of the individual.
Now when a person applies for a passport, Driving license, Ration card, Government jobs, Bank loans in nationalised banks, pensions, bail, registering land, and wants to use other government facilities like free hospitals, free schooling, ESI, PF etc should be denied if they have not voted even once in the last 3 elections (could be local or central). All the forms should have a mandatory field for the national Id and before processing the forms, their vote status should be considered before sanctioning their request. This should not only imply for new passports, Licenses, Ration cards, etc. but for it's renewal too. This is similar to stripping the citizenship of a person until he/she votes.
Then everyone will vote at least to use the government facilities. Every labourer will vote otherwise his kids wont get free education, or they wont get a ration card, ESI etc. Every one in the middle class will vote too as they will not get a passport, Driving licence, government job, bank loans etc. Every rich person too will vote, as apart from being deprived from all the facilities they cannot register land, Buy or renew their business licenses, etc. Even a person, like a criminal who is not worried about the country will vote, as he will not be given a bail when required if he is not voted previously.
Some people would have been sick or out of town and couldn't have made it to their home town during elections and that is the reason a buffer should be given and should be checked for a minimal voting of once in 3 elections. Saying this, it does not mean that many of them will not vote if they have voted previously, as they might think what if am not able to vote the next time for some reason, then I would have not voted twice in a row and the next time I will be close to losing my citizenship. Nobody would want to take that risk, and vote whenever possible.
Strict rules should be imposed on the people who do not vote. I know a US citizen, who was in Bangalore when the President election was going on and she voted through post. Policies such as this has to be implemented in India too, but this is possible in US as every citizen has a Social Security Number. Without this the NRIs (Non Resident Indian) and the Indians who are out of India will find it difficult to come to India every time when there is an election and participate in it.
I am 25 and since I have been eligible to vote, there has been 4 elections, I was not able to vote the first time as I did not have a Voter's Id. I made sure I got mine and since then I have voted in 3 elections. Hope everyone votes even if strict rules have not been implemented.
Indians sit, talk and argue about politics for hours but on the day it matters, they prefer not to be a part of it. I hate politics but I disgust people who don't vote. I am living in a nation that is not developed, where the taxes are high, the infrastructure is not good, the cities are not clean, and I am being taxed for everything I do, etc. it is because of people who don't vote.
My solution to this:
If every Indian were given a unique Id, just like how it is in many other countries a lot of problems can be resolved including this one. This unique number or alphanumeric Id should be centralised and any activity that is related to the government should be done through this. The centralised database should hold all the details of the individual.
Now when a person applies for a passport, Driving license, Ration card, Government jobs, Bank loans in nationalised banks, pensions, bail, registering land, and wants to use other government facilities like free hospitals, free schooling, ESI, PF etc should be denied if they have not voted even once in the last 3 elections (could be local or central). All the forms should have a mandatory field for the national Id and before processing the forms, their vote status should be considered before sanctioning their request. This should not only imply for new passports, Licenses, Ration cards, etc. but for it's renewal too. This is similar to stripping the citizenship of a person until he/she votes.
Then everyone will vote at least to use the government facilities. Every labourer will vote otherwise his kids wont get free education, or they wont get a ration card, ESI etc. Every one in the middle class will vote too as they will not get a passport, Driving licence, government job, bank loans etc. Every rich person too will vote, as apart from being deprived from all the facilities they cannot register land, Buy or renew their business licenses, etc. Even a person, like a criminal who is not worried about the country will vote, as he will not be given a bail when required if he is not voted previously.
Some people would have been sick or out of town and couldn't have made it to their home town during elections and that is the reason a buffer should be given and should be checked for a minimal voting of once in 3 elections. Saying this, it does not mean that many of them will not vote if they have voted previously, as they might think what if am not able to vote the next time for some reason, then I would have not voted twice in a row and the next time I will be close to losing my citizenship. Nobody would want to take that risk, and vote whenever possible.
Strict rules should be imposed on the people who do not vote. I know a US citizen, who was in Bangalore when the President election was going on and she voted through post. Policies such as this has to be implemented in India too, but this is possible in US as every citizen has a Social Security Number. Without this the NRIs (Non Resident Indian) and the Indians who are out of India will find it difficult to come to India every time when there is an election and participate in it.
I am 25 and since I have been eligible to vote, there has been 4 elections, I was not able to vote the first time as I did not have a Voter's Id. I made sure I got mine and since then I have voted in 3 elections. Hope everyone votes even if strict rules have not been implemented.
