The power of a vote

The power of a ‘vote’

India is a democracy, and this is something which has been mentioned, written and spoken about a bit too often in textbooks, articles, journals, speeches and blogs. But, what is it about democracy which differentiates it from any other form of government, for me, it’s the distinction between discretion and obligation. With the next set of elections on its way and politicians and leaders gearing themselves up to win the confidence of the public, and making fancy promises of living upto their expectations, it becomes imperative for us, ‘the aam-aadmi’ to make the right choices and voice our opinion. In order to do so, the educated janta ought to exercise their right, the same right which very often people take for granted at the cost of their time, money and many other such excuses, this right is called the ‘right to vote’.

 The need of the hour is to wake up and smell the coffee, react to what’s happening in our surroundings and not succumb and become privy to it. We as Indian’s share a history of being very tolerant beings, today this common perception is slowly and gradually being shattered. Finally, the leaders are bending down and realizing that force and pressure is not something that’s going to work in today’s times. Merely giving emotional speeches is not going to win the audience who is more aware, conscious and skeptical of everything, one needs enough credentials to back them up. The Janta today is no longer adjusting towards short term gains like TV sets, laptops  for a family or any other materialistic gains, what will a TV set serve when the family does’nt have basic amenities like food, clothing, shelter, electricity for their basic survival. 

Gone are the days of bogus promises and lethargy, the political discourse is transforming and waking up from the age old themes of social justice, reservation, secularism to social and infrastructure development, job creation and prosperity. The concerns of modern India are predominantly economic and transforming India into a poverty free country. In order to achieve these, we need a leader who is not only sensitive to the needs of the masses, but should feel like he’s one of them, he ought to be proactive in his decisions and also its implementation, forward driven, puts the country and its people before self and not just somebody who merely enjoys the fruits of holding an office. But before we can think of all this, let’s get back to the basics..how exactly is all of this possible? Who is going to make this dream of a corrupt free nation happen? The answer is something we all know, but we don’t want to exercise it, The answer is in the power of that one vote, which has made regimes and empires fall in the past, the answer is in the power of the masses, who at the end of the day are the decision makers. The answer is that ‘one vote’.