My first Voting experience

Today was an important day in my life. I voted for the first time. It was an awesome experience. For the first time in my blog I am going to write only about my personal experience and my thoughts about it.


Today morning I woke up at around 7.45. I had actually planned to wake up and go vote at 7 in the morning. But I slept late. Ok, its better I start from yesterday night. After coming from office at 10 in the night. I checked out Election commission's various websites, jagore.com and many other sites to find my polling booth and also the details of my candidates here. I could not find my polling booth, but in Maharashtra CEO's website I found information of my candidates. There were only 3 working links (each on a candidate of my constituency) of the 8 provided , of which all the working links were scanned copies of their application and 2 where in English and the other in Marathi. EC could not take the pain of getting the transcribed to soft copies or even post multiple Language versions of the applications. So I hit the sack at 1 in the night, not even a little bit more educated about the candidates.

In the morning as soon as I got up at 7.45 I just brushed and decided that the first thing I am gonna do is vote. As I was locking the door, I was thinking of 49-0 as I can't decide who is best for my constituency. I just know that the BJP guy is a semi builder (and Mulund is a gold mine for real estate business). The MNS wants people like me out of here and I dunno anything about the congress candidate other than he is an Advocate. I don't even know his name (Congress campaign was literally 0 out here). kewl!

So, now the mission was to find my polling booth. I first went to the nearest polling booth, who redirected me to my actual one. In-front of the booth I tried to find if my name was in the list with two parties who had set up stalls there. Nobody could find me in their electoral roll. Then one of the ladies there suggested me to go in and she was sure the electoral officers will find my name in the list. So after wasting almost an hour I went to the polling booth. There right near the entrance gate there was a huge crowd around a table. I thought that this was the official electoral table to find you booth and number, but before I could enquire somebody redirected me to the polling room.

Now this is where the fun starts. I went in, nobody was there ahead of me, my number was found in less that 2 seconds (Actually I noticed it on the list first). Now my name was called out aloud. All the representatives of various parties ticked my name in their list. Now, I declared 'I want No Vote'. There was sudden silence. Everybody started staring at each other. Nobody first understood. Then I said ' I want no vote as per 49-0 rule'(of course, in Hindi). Then the lady who called out my name said 'oh Ok' and said to the presiding officer that mine is a no vote. Now the problem was that nobody has come across anybody who wanted to cast a no vote. My name was put on register and remarked no vote. I was asked to sign.

Then the presiding officer asked me to wait there for a minute. People started coming in, all staring at me as if I just came out of zoo. All the party guyz were staring at me with those wryly smiles and that expression saying, if the cops were not here, you would have been dead meat.

I also smiled back in my typical 'I just f****** you' style. Then the presiding office checked all the documents he had, and since he could not find anything he called up his boss and asked "what's to be done if somebody wants to vote 49-0'? He was told that signing in the register is enough. Another lady , an electoral officer also crossed checked in their records and said that's enough. (Actually I had found this information on EC's website yesterday night on a 100 page pdf file). The officer said to me that I am free to go(by now it was 5 minutes since I had signed the register), I thanked him, shook hands and walked out. For the first time, I felt proud of myself after a good number of years. Borrowing words from Mrs. Obama . I am for the first time in my adult life proud of my country. Proud of my country because, how ever worse the condition is there is scope for improvement and that it can be done.


But, one point I would like to make is, what about the victimisation of such voters. One party member each of n number of parties was there, what if I am attacked or some kind of revenge is taken? I am not afraid, I am mentally prepared for any such thing. But, is that a reason for deterring people from going to vote and not asking for 49-0 even if they want to? We need to think. Also, is it not illegal to reveal my vote , even a 'No Vote' is a vote. So I have to reveal my vote at the polling booth? Is that not contradictory?

But, I am proud that I did the right thing for my constituency. I know, this does not change anything in today's election. But I am hopeful that in the long run it will. How? I have done 49-0 no vote. Till now we knew that only from forwards and orkut scraps. Well, here is the real proof. It is there. If you feel that there are no right candidates in your constituency, then use this weapon. Not for you, but for others.

(PS: two things, 1. I could not find any document on candidates being disqualified if majority votes are 49-0. 2. My criteria set for a good candidate was just three things. a. educated b.bipartisan and no criminal records c. who has managed to run a proper campaign - nobody was good enough).

We need to make an educated choice for this country and spread awareness. That's what we can do, to repay the martyrs of this great Nation.

VOTE FOR INDIA, VOTE FOR OTHERS.

VOTE IS NOT A RIGHT, VOTE IS A DUTY.

MUMBAI 26/11/2008 , Lets be prepared. Lets choose the right leaders.

JAI HIND

BJP Vs Congress

So another week is gone. Today we had the first phase of elections. Its great news that we had 60% voter turnout. The bad news is the Maoist attack on some polling booths. Its regrettable that we could not stop it. But such incidents are expected, considering the number of antisocial elements in the country. I should salute all the polling officials and the security personnel who are ensuring a smooth election. They are the real keepers of this democracy. Even the EC, which has come under severe criticism(including me) deserves due credit for the efforts it is putting in. But we have a long way to go, 4 more sessions. All the Best & Thanks to all of you guyz.


Well, Politics is really high steam right now and there are some nasty comments on the air. First of all, Security. I still believe that Congress is weaker than BJP when it comes to national security. I don't think congress has the balls to protect this country, especially with there vote bank pseudo secular agenda. Well the nastiest of the comments has been made by congress too, when it comes to national security. They are implicating the BJP for releasing terrorist when AI plane was hijacked to Kandhahar. I think they are being unfair to the BJP. Any Indian government would have done that to save its citizens. Congress would have done it even faster. I personally don't agree with releasing terrorists, but any govt would have done that. The congress comment that they had instead killed the 10 terrorists in Mumbai. Let me ask, "Mumbai is inside India. You did not ensure that they never entered, where as neither Nepal nor Afghanistan is inside India. Also You killed 10 terrorists after they killed 168. It took 3 days to clean 10 guyz from our own city. You could not even raise a finger against Pakistan. Your home minister changed suit three times, your PM could not even console us forget inspire. What happened to the other dozen blasts? Have u been able to arrest even one of those bombers?" National Security, i believe BJP would do better. The provocative action after the parliament attack was a clear example to this. where as the PM could not even inspire us, or console us after the mumbai attacks. If there is one more attack and if i survive, i want a PM who can at least give me hope of another day. Though I am not confident Advani will be able to do that, but i am sure he will be better than Dr.Singh.

But when it comes to economics, I think congress is way ahead. I really don't think BJP is even in the same league. Congress not only has really good economists, but also a good strategy till now. Though they have committed blunders and even politically motivated moves, still they have been better that BJP. So for finance my vote goes to the Congress.

Education is another major factor, where neither the congress nor the BJP has been able to impress me. I personally feel that both of them try to push their ideologies. Having done education from a communist state i actually think Communist is better. But with them will come more politicizations of campus. So i will not choose anybody. (SP guyz- if u are ready to ban education and not just English may be i will think of voting for u. lol)

Industries - Again, I think congress has done better than BJP here. But with somebody like modi in the ranks i think BJP is catching up very quickly in this front.

Agriculture - No vote. absolutely no vote. Other than declaring perks and giving free bees no government or party has really made an attempt to solve the problems in this front. Actually, the response of our political fraternity to this field proves that our political and overall administrative system is reactive and not proactive. This sadly, has been inherited from our colonial masters. They had this kind of system because they were not answerable to the people they were ruling, also we were just instruments for profit for them. This interpretation of how the system works has to change, and this has to start from the agricultural sector.

Corruption- All the parties are in the same boat here. But still i would rather go for the BJP, because congress has a notorious ability to infiltrate the not yet infiltrated government institutions. Starting from EC to the President's office are clear examples. What are the credentials of Pratiba Patil to be Indian President? Gifted a shawl to congress president? The so called Hindu Nationalist Party the BJP put A. P. J. Abdul Kalam a Muslim on the president's seat. My vote is for BJP here.

Youth- I would rather go for the congress here. They have been able to push some young blood in like Rahul Gandhi, Milind Deora, Jothiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot etc. But the common thing among all these guys is that they are all belonging to political dynasties. But BJP looses the plot here miserably, calling Arun Jaitley and Narendra Modi young. Arun would be close to retirement if he was in a govt service and Modi would have already retired. They are not young. Of course they are young if you compare to Vajpayee and Advani. But they are not the bench mark. So here i vote for Congress.

I am not considering any other party here because, no other party can form government. Neither does any other party have the resource to run such a huge and fast moving nation. Any one of these parties has to be in the govt. If not, the people who ask now "What can be worse?" would be saying "Oh! it can be worse". If not these two parties, then the communist should be the largest party in the coilation that forms the govt. That would at least have some intellectuals to run the country, though it would be like a car moving in reverse gear on the main road, that too on the wrong side.

Gaming the Election Commision

I thought this week i will abstain from talking about politics, especially the caste based divide. But what has happened in last few days has made me completely change my decision. First of all, if Varun Gandhi has made any comment like he wants the Muslims to leave or he will hurt/kill them, that should be deeply condemned. I do that.

At the same time, the parties like congress and others i feel are trying to push their pseudo-secular agenda out of this non-issue. If Varun Gandhi has said something like that, like all politicians say in other cases "Law will take its own course". Why push it? It seems that congress is playing some kinda sick game where its trying to utilize the communal divide. Especially with BJP, who can claim communalism as their trump card on back foot. Some how I feel the EC's hurry to take steps seems fishy and dubious. Actually speaking the Presidential Gazette notification has come only today(Monday 23/03/09). So can EC force the code of conduct, before that? I read some details on that and they suggested "No, EC can't ".

Second reason for my doubt is, Why did the EC not take such immediate action against, Stalin, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Govinda who distributed money in front of national channels. I haven't till now read any action taken against them.

Finally, the Navin Chawla and Congress Nexus is clear to all. For the first time, i have a small feeling that EC is biased. Especially with Gopalswami is in his last days as CEC. He is more of like a puppet chief. Not wanting to rub the ruling party on wrong side after the 'remove Chawla ' debacle. Especially with a President more belonging to Congress than India. (How better is the life of Mahrashtrians after getting a Maharashtrian President, lemme ask the Shiv Sena).

Saying all these i have to stress two points. If anybody for what ever reason talks about any community in bad light should be severely punished. At the same time, if anybody says anything in support of Hindus he should not be branded communal. But sadly, thats the trend in India and is being highly backed by mainstream media. (Most of the blogs and online articles i have read in this context have the same opinion.So its not a personal feeling)

If a person says "I love ABC community". He is not necessarily communal. But if some body says "I hate ABC community". He is communal and he shouldn't be allowed to do that.

I am not concerned about all these. Congress has very dubious record of influencing Govt agencies. Election Commission seems to be its next victim. But if it pushes the EC to take drastic step of de recognizing BJP's poll symbol or even something remotely close, the congress may be indirectly setting the stage for a BJP victory (with sympathy vote) and also the little bit of divide in the Hindutva vote will cease to exist and they will close ranks. Once BJP comes to power they will exploit fully the congress trend of influencing the EC and exploit one of the last bastions of unbiased national Institutions. It will be then, one of the severest punch on Indian democracy.

I will be looking forward to how much Congress , BJP and EC are gonna go and how much more our democracy is gonna be hurt.

All I gotta say is, some great cops and army men laid down their life for this country, for Indians. Not for Hindus and Not for Muslims or any other community. For once, lets vote as Indians rather than vote as a Hindu or Muslim or upper caste or Youngster or elder.

FOR ONCE, VOTE AS INDIAN.

VOTE IS NOT A RIGHT, ITS A DUTY.

even I am trying to get myself registered in the voters list. I think if I get registered, i will take 49-O ;)