Time for Indian Youth & Middle Class to Assert Themselves through Voting, A Sincere Appeal:

Once upon a time when I was a middle school student, my father took me to an election rally held in support of a candidate from our town. The candidate happened to be totally uneducated elderly man who was barely able to walk or talk but had amassed a huge amount of money, through hook or crook, by his repeated previous ventures of being elected as an MLA and MP. I overheard two young men talking about his chances of winning election. They casually stated that he is so corrupt and cunning that had he decided to field ‘a cat’ instead of himself, it would win. Being about ten years of age, I didn’t comprehend the meaning of their statement. My father then clarified for me that in our country, the youth and educated middle class talks a lot but shows no interest in the electoral process and instead tries to shun the election. As a result, the election-day merely turns out to be a day of fortunes for such candidates who play politics not only with innocent people but rather with the destiny of Bharat Maata and yet get away. When it comes to our most sacred duty, a privilege to VOTE, they seem to ignore it.

Think about it for a moment? How many countries of the world allow its citizens to take part in the selection/election process of their Presidents or Prime Ministers? The forefathers of our country who helped liberate our countries from ‘Farangies’ had a dream and foresight about elections and votes, but alas! We the young men and women of India are blowing it away and have taken our freedom for granted. One doesn’t need to go that far to learn about the fate and lives of people still living under dictators and religious zealots in mid-east and Africa. Open any newspaper and watch small screen, each and every day dictators are causing havoc with the lives of ordinary men and women.

Unfortunately, the familiarity with the voting process, over period of time, has introduced a kind of apathy and distrust in our minds, simply because of the abundance of irregularities that take place at the polling booths. Many among us have resigned to this fact that elections are meant to bring forward the corrupt politicians anyway, so why take the trouble to vote?, Yet, we all know that if we all were to think alike, there will be no votes and no elections.

We have our rights but yet, we have responsibilities. Our rights are too enormous. We have freedom to work and freedom to work in any kind of job or business we like, provided we have qualifications to compete for it. We have freedom to live a life-style of our choice and live at a place of our liking, a freedom to wear what we like or even wear scantily or shabbily if we so desire. We have the freedom to practice our faith, provided we don’t intervene with others. Imagine, if one didn’t have all this? What kind of life style it would have been? Sterile, bland and dull with nothing to look forward to! Just look around the corner to our neighboring country run by religious zealots or dictators. All this happens because somewhere along the line, the people were either denied the right to vote or did not take their responsibility that seriously.

Come April and May, we will have a unique responsibility to ourselves and to our future generations. We must fulfill that sacred obligation. Vote for what we think is right but vote we must, for this is the most valid and sacred duty for all of us. Crying over the spilled milk doesn’t help later. You must make hey while the Sun shines and not after it has set. Making sure that country is run by people with dignity and integrity is the responsibility of the youth of India and middle class. Shunning this responsibility will be a horrendous crime against mother India. She has shed lots of tears. Now it is time for us to sweep them from her face.