Well...not a good time to start Voting!!! This was the first time I voted and the experience was seriously pathetic. I guess this is the thing which drives many youngsters away from politics and our country is still plagued by the old, not ready to leave politicians.
So, as a concerned citizen, I went to vote at 8:00 AM (trust me I don't even get up at 8 AM normally, not even during my exams). I was enthusiastic but there was something else waiting for me in the next 2 days of election "Mahaul". I saw the much hyped Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) and guess what, I got a shock (not an electrical shock by touching the machine)...it was like an asteroid coming from Mars and striking me right on my head. There were a couple of EVMs connected in series containing names of 30 odd candidates. The shock was these candidates were contesting elections from my own city and I knew the names of only 2 of them...even the people sitting there knew 14 candidates at max and according to my research in newspaper thereafter, I found out that only 5 or 6 candidates tried to do some campaigning on a bigger scale..big enough to win elections.
So if people don't know the candidates then how can they vote for them and if they can't then whats the purpose of placing another machine and adding to the colossal some of money spent in the elections.
My misery doesn't ends here. Next day, I was in Dausa for some work and I saw the biggest rally of my life. "Rally" will be demeaning as it was a POWER SHOW by the supporters of Kirodi lal Meena..I don't know what they were trying to prove...but were extremely happy as if he (hon. Kirori ji) won the election. They helped the common man by blocking the roads for 2 hours and threatening people who came in their way. The police and special force was just standing as a spectator waiting for them to leave and play with the law and order for as much time they wanted. If the ministers and the police are just adding to our woes, then whats the point in Voting!!!
I coudn't exercise the Section 49-0...I VOTE NOBODY and it hurts now....may be if many people do that, election commission should understand the public sentiment that none of the candidate was good enough to cast a vote for. Lets hope that the awareness of this one helps eliminating the non-qualified candidates and the democracy finds out a way towards improved politics.
