Should you really vote in India’s general elections: An eye opener!

You Count, your vote counts, lets make a better India, decoding myths!

'It is improper and unethical to enjoy a rest on the voting day, you must come and play a role in changing the rotten Indian system'. Most Indian citizens would have come across phrases like this each day in the run-up to state and general elections over the past 25 years. There isn't a better analysis than looking at the samples of what 'coming out' and voting has led to.

It is one thing for political forces to try and lure voters and campaign aggressively for their benefits and quite another thing for the voters to buy that idea or dream. Do you want parties to change or your lives?

Does Congress winning the 2019 polls after being hammered to 44 seats in 2014, make Indian democracy better? Does Modi retaining power change the corruption index? Have we forgotten what the anti-corruption crusader Kejriwal dealt with the promises he made? Has the Indian voter turned blind?

What does voting accomplish in the Indian context?

Indian citizens vote, because voting lets them tell the government what they want it to do. What it doesn't do is force governments to stop treating voters as stepping stones. The sad part is even educated professionals fall into the propaganda taglines like - 'Your vote counts', evidence shows it does not.

Let us see how voters have been treated and not fall for the communication strategies employed by the planning division of electoral beneficiaries. There is an element of ego satisfaction among India's general public and a sense of 'hollow' participation when it comes to voting and the impact it has.

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Sitting in front of TV screens and feeling satisfied after you know that the candidate you voted for has won, only paints a cozy picture devoid of what an election should aim for. The 'Who Else if not Modi' art of convincing needs to be exposed to the pole.

We as citizens deserve neither Modi nor Rahul. We deserve a better India in which institutions run the game and politicians serve the tasks assigned rather than turning popular orators and brutal dictators.

And the ECI joke!

The Election Commission's role enthrals me the most. It refrains from either incentivizing voting or making it mandatory and also offers little significance to NOTA. This superior to all attitude is disastrous for the country in the long run. Officials from EC saying we don't have enough provisions to punish MCC violators does sound strange.

The Supreme Court of the country has always been of the view that ECI is an autonomous and powerful institution in the Constitution and it does not like guiding it how to conduct polls in the world's largest democracy. The observations like elections are costly affairs, to deny petitions for transparency and bringing back the ballot papers, show that when it comes to cases affecting the high and the mighty, SC develops cold feet.

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When Shivraj lost MP after 15 years, media commentators were prompt to say that his defeat points out the strength of Indian democracy. How do parties coming and going to change governance related issues? Indian voters keep giving chances and parties keep following betrayal templates. And the religious common man believes all this should one day perish given the law of averages.

It won't because it is a pretty successful exploitation formula.

So how will things change, if they ever change?

Voting in large numbers is certainly not the answer. Voting for NOTA is a waste in light of the inferior treatment it gets. So most of us would agree that India needs some serious functional and administrative reforms. Looking towards our politicians to grant us that wish is like asking them to shoot themselves in their heads.

Prudent outlook would show that's not going to change unless voters disapprove the process we call as polls. When voting percentages fall dramatically, SC would be bound to entertain petitions for greater transparency and better candidates.

10 years from now we would find similar candidates offering polished lies and we would be selecting the best possible or the least 'evil' one. That's an outdated approach and we should be getting more corrupt leaders if voters do not come forward to shake the scam we today call as 'Polls'.

(Views expressed in the article belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to Devdiscourse)