Horizons - Filled with Hope

I voted this morning! This is the first time I have cast my ballot – even though I have been eligible twice before.

During LS 2004, I ran from pillar to post to get my name of the voters' list but to no avail. During Karnataka assembly polls in 2008; I was solely to blame for not voting. I had taken a vacation after a very long time and did not want to “waste”my vacation by staying back in Bangalore! A (very) stupid excuse, I now realize in hindsight.

So what exactly am I feeling now, after having pressed the blue button?

• Relief, that I have performed my duty and that my responsibility ends here?

• Elation, for I can now crib about anything and everything, without pricking my conscience; since I have now earned the right to crib?

NO and NO.

I am feeling excited; for having taken the first concrete step towards being a responsible citizen. Of course, I believe that the other steps (blogging, creating awareness) etc do matter – but casting my vote is the first active step (the operative phrase being “active”).

I am feeling eager – in anticipation of all that I have to look forward to in the coming years.

I am feeling confident, that we the youth can turn around the state of affairs on its head in the next decade by participating whole-heartedly in administration and governance.

Cheers to that thought. Hoping for an India cleansed of its political garbage. JAI HIND.

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As an afterthought, how does one decide who to vote for? Obviously, it depends on the situation. Here's how I took the decision:

1. First, check if any of the alternative parties are contesting in my constituency. If so, analyze them and choose the best among them.

2. If there are no candidates from any of the “new-age parties”, then do a thorough study of all the candidates who are contesting (including the Independents) – their history, whether there are any criminal cases against them, their assets, their manifesto. If I find any of them satisfactory, I zero in on that candidate.

3. If they are all the same (read “useless”), then do the next best thing – vote for the candidate from that party which I think is the better among the worst.

I know what you're thinking – what did I choose finally? I'm not telling – its a secret ballot remember :D. I'm not even disclosing how many steps I had to step through in the above process before I arrived at a conclusion ;)

THIRTY SEVEN .. no less. Don't believe me? Check for the number of candidates contesting from Bangalore Central (for example - at this site).

I'm wondering what percentage of the total votes cast will the winner garner! And I'm wondering what will be the share of the winner as a percentage of the total number of eligible voters in the constituency (taking into account a 60-70 percent voter turn-out).

World's largest democracy ki Jai Ho!

The season of hate speeches is here. Every party worth its salt has had one by now. How can I be left behind? So here I present my own little hate speech:

"If anybody uses violence-laden or hate speeches in the run-up to the elections, we will cut/slit/chop/slash their lifelines - their power. Yes, we will see to it that not a single person who resorts to hate-speeches comes anywhere close to climbing the stairs of the Parliament. We do not need a even one such person to run our country. We will send them to the political slaughterhouse where they will meet their political grave!"

I'm sure the various competing parties will pick on me for giving this hate speech. And Election Commission might be forced to poke its nose too. However, I seek support from you, the reader to ensure that the parties and EC do not deter me from going ahead with this "Hate Campaign".

Can I count on your support?

Update: This post has been BlogBharti'ed

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Its 2050 A.D. The Indian Parliamentary elections are just round the corner. All political parties are immersed in hectic preparations for the polls.

Over at Amethi, the capital of the Targetary Republic of India, leaders of several smaller regional parties have come together for a meeting. The agenda is to discuss pre-poll alliances. These parties do not want to be part of the 2 big alliances: NDA (National Destructive Alliance) or UPA (Unbelievably Pathetic Alliance). They do not even want to be part of the 3^rd Front. Hence, they are coming together to form the Four-and-a-Half-th Back (4.5B).

Leader of the CPI (Chinese Party of India) – the largest party in the 4.5FB alliance, Mr. TomDick Harry announced the formation of this alliance in a press statement today:

“Initially, our party wanted to join the Third-and-a-Quarterth Direction-less (3Q-D). This is mainly because this front is dominated by the Right-wing parties, and we used to believe in their ideology.

However, as can be seen from recent developments, the Rights just wanted to get up-Front and they were not willing to have a dialogue to address our points of view. So during our recent party High Command meeting, we passed a resolution to disassociate ourselves from the 3Q-D.

That left us with the Left parties and their alliance – Nothing's Left (NL). However, we do not subscribe to their views at all. Finally, we decided to leave the Left Back, and jumped into the Centre with our own alliance.

4.5B is undoubtedly the future of India. We believe in all-Round backwardness. We aim to make every backward person/caste/section/religion/occupation even more backward – so much so that in 4.5 years, we aim to achieve our goal of having only one non-backward person out of every 4.5 people in India. Hence the name 4.5B.”

It remains to be seen how well this alliance is perceived by the public. All eyes are now on the MangoRepublic (also known as aam aadmi) citizen forum to react to this latest pre-poll alliance.

Watch this space for continuous updates leading right up to the D-Day.