I have an enthusiastic, awake young son who has just attained voting age. He wants to vote. We got the Form 6 which is needed to obtain the voter id. This is to be submitted to “Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike” office. (This is the way the government wants us to give our cheques and DDs . So those hell-bent on these changes have not fully updated to the not so new name of our city.) . It must be a series of coincidence that I found the place open only on my 5th or 6th attempt to submit the form. That ultimately happened in the month of September. After that we were supposed to get the photo id. But that chance never came. We went to our HELPLINE set up for our constituency in Bommasundra, a suburb of Bangalore. It was full of duty conscious people patiently waiting for their turn outside what can at best be described as a tightly pulled down shutter. It would open once in 30-40 minutes and as many people as could, would squeeze in. After two such surges, we were close to our “Open Sesame” moment. People were getting impatient and tempers and decibels were going up. This was a good two hours after we arrived and 3 hours before the helpline was supposed to close. At the third surge, it was close to a stampede and one cop who most would be voters thought was drunk took it upon himself to use his lathi. At first he gave it to a dozen or so people and then he started hitting the ground. This is when a helpful senior looking cop advised us to simply go home and come back later. We pride ourselves as being a big democracy.
We are probably the largest pool of people who will go to any length, to try and vote. How many become actually eligible is a big question. I still remember the TV footage where late Pramod Mahajan was helplessly stating that even his name was not on the electoral list. The impression it has had on the enthusiasm of my 19 year old is what led me to write about his
Quest to give a vote….
The point to note is that I am awake
I never shirked when it was time to take
A risk or a vital decision to make.
The point to note
Is I am ready to vote.
I applied, and applied and then re-applied
I cajoled, I hustled and bustled and I tried
And unlike what “Jaagore” implied,
The path to cast a vote is narrow, not wide,
And it is thus that for me, democracy died.
I am no poet but a writer and critic.
The story to be told is tragically pathetic
A boy of just nineteen is already bitter
“I Voted” is something he perhaps can never twitter
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2 comments:
I have had similar experience. Govt has to do an usability study of all their systems, keeping in mind the current state of technolgy aware population. If they give me a simple form on the web, atleast my name will not be mis-spelt and after that two forms and few trips to get it rectified.
Nicky
this is a good blog. i really think that the state is not upto being a democracy. frustration notwithstanding, keep trying. i got my voting card much late in life - primarily because i shifted so many places. but its worth it. keep pegging on - we are the state, the state is not separate.
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