India is a democratic country which means of the people, by the people and for the people. As one would have observed, the definition begins with a
crucial aspect–“of”, which means that any democracy is formed by a set of
people who decide their own elected representatives. An important and
unavoidable reason as to why democracy is not successful in India is because of
corruption that has entered and ruined the system of democracy.
More often, elections and election results are
wrongly perceived and interpreted. Most candidates are bought; votes and voters are bought, while
bribes and materials are given to potential voters to woo them. It is shocking
for a citizen to know that in some part of rural areas people are threatened to
give vote to a particular candidate. People nowadays do not do politics rather
they play politics.
Why one must vote:
Ideally,
as a citizen of your own country, one is expected to vote and participate in the
formation of the government. It is an opportunity given to every eligible
Indian that one must not miss if he/she wishes to see a particular set of
people ruling the country. The fact that you vote is living proof that you, as
an individual, participated in the formation of a democracy as huge as India.
But, more often than not, this doesn’t work as a sufficient reason to urge voters to come and
exercise what is their fundamental duty as a citizen. One needs to be above 18
years of age in our country to be able to vote. But, how many of us actually take that extra effort to
get out of the house and vote for our desired candidate? Going by most election
statistical figures, average voter turn-out in most Indian states is not more
than 60%. By knowing the total population, these figures are a shame.
“How can my one vote make any difference???” is
the reason given by most of the highly educated people who do not have ignorance
and lack of knowledge for not stepping out of the house to give their vote. One
another weird reason given is that they do not believe their one vote can make any difference,
or that there aren’t worthy enough candidates who deserve their vote. One token to this is the concept of Negative Vote which is an
option given to the voters which is the “none of the above (NOTA)”. It means that the voter has expressed his/her
dissatisfaction with all the candidates. However, it is a very absurd option because,
it works in the favor of the candidates. Even if one were to give a “negative
vote”, it doesn’t help the situation in any way as one among the given set of
candidates would still win, with or without the voter’s vote.
So should voting be made compulsory?
Since the voter turnout is very low, we must
ensure that people come and vote. Now, the question arises, how? Well to start
with, the entire exercise must be made compulsory for all. But, making anything
compulsory nullifies the purpose of democracy.
Handful of experts believe that there is no other way to ensure that
everyone votes and one can hope of a more equal and desirable government. Some
experts do not believe that making voting compulsory is the right way to
achieve the desired goal. While the intention may be strong and truly right,
the procedure is indeed questionable. If a person is compelled to vote, he/she
will be robbed of his/her own free will.
In countries like Australia, voter registration
and attendance at polling booths are compulsory activities and this has turned
out to be the reason for largest turnout of voters in the world. But, in
country like Brazil, this process has backfired. Making something compulsory
does not solve the problem. I personally feel, it’s better to have a 60%
turnout when we know that the people who voted did so voluntarily, out of their
own free will and choice, than a 99% turnout when we know that more than half
of that the huge figure voted out of compulsion and reluctance rather than
willingness and choice.
-Ms. Parminder
Student, INLEAD
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