After you sign out of your hotmail account, you land on the MSN portal. The video section had a post ‘Bwood stars encourage people to vote‘, which takes you to a page where you are forced to see some commericals and a message saying ‘Your video will begin right after this message’. I did not have the patience to wait till the commercials got over or the video to get started and I closed the window.
The same day I recieved a mail saying about 1200 odd NGOs have come together to start an awareness programme for the voters pointing out the criminals nominated by various parties for elections. Its a great step taken by these guys and hope it brings about the much needed change in the filteration process for the candidature. Moreso, our so called responsible, entusiastic bollywood asking the Janta to vote should be pointing out the criminals standing for elections publicly so people know who NOT to vote if they ever decide to vote.
Hope atleast one of the bollywood voting promoter reads this thought to help people elect the right candidate and not just step out and vote anybody for the sake of voting.
If Bollywood is any reflection of society today then I think they’ve hit one right one the head. The old adage holds that the only option for criminals today is to join ‘paalticks’ to save thier hide from the justice system. Doesn’t say much for our future does it? India was plundered several times in past millenia from the Mongols, the Afghans, the Mughals, the britishers and now our very own politicians.
So what do we do? Can 1 person truely make a difference?
Only time will tell. As for me, I ain’t wastin a good non-working saturday to wake up early and vote for some no good sonofa#@%&*!
Hell yea… one person CAN make difference, remember M. K. Gandhi? the only dude who could do it! and he fought against the British. To give a more comparable example, Chandrashekhar turned the face of Thane, Rajiv Gandhi made the IT industry happen to our underdeveloped nation and so on…
Here, there is no fight involved, or no foreigner, no swords or satyagraha, u just need step out and vote the right person. He may not turn the city around overnight, But if he is really genuine, he would need support from the people. And if all of us decide to not step out and ‘waste’ our holiday, which will involve only a couple of hours or even lesser…. then we are doomed, this country is going to dogs.
If an educated, learned personality, person who has been around the world can talk like this, imagine what the rural people are thinking, who are either voting for money, or just don’t know who they are voting. And eventually result in some crook getting elected as the leader….
Thats just it – the country IS going to the dogs despite progress made in the business world.
A few facts that will put my views in perspective:
1. Poverty is rampant – 28% of our populace live below the poverty line
2. Illiteracy is still 39%
3. Public health or social services are pretty much absent. The term itself is alien here.
4. Basic Infrastructure like roads and electricity are severly lacking
What progress has been made here??! Very Little!
Yes, politicians have surely become more corrupt and have found newer and innovative ways of fleecing the government assigned funds. The problem is not really at the center. The problem is throghout the value chain as it were where the implementors are corrupt and unscrupulous. What we need is a short term communist regime which eliminates this desease thats percolated the very fabric of our ancient and glorious civilization.
Shiv sena seems more interested in causing social unrest rather than doing any real good. How many hospitals and schools have they opened/funded? How many additional homes have they provided clean drinking water and electricity to? NONE!!!
That said, I wouldn’t mind spending even half a day on a holiday to depose the frauds that call themselves paliticians today and to overthrow local governments as it were.
I see your point… a pessimistic one! So you want to throw sweet democracy out of the window and get communist regime? and what is the guarantee that it would be successful and will turn around the above given statistics? You want to change the system, and are you anything doing about it? well with what I got, u certainly dont wanna waste ur ‘Holiday’ for something thats NEVER gonna change….. So chill, sit at home and don’t vote…. and let poor next generation rot in the doubly corrupt government…. Or if you decide to do something about the system then we know our conversation is not going waste….
You better be doing either of the two. Vote or change the system….. I will pick the easier route! VOTE.
what we really need is some form of global catastrophy that threatens are very survival or way of being – like an alien invasion. That is something which will truely bring people together – not just at home – but abroad as well.
Talking of slow progress, people take days to decide what color will be their bedroom, one can imagine how difficult it might be take a decision which affect a Billion people and their descendants.
The gestation period of any govt policy itself runs in to years depending on the target populace. AND THEIR IS NO ROLLBACK without BACKLASH.
We should try to understand the system and work with it rather than EVERYONE stand against it! It is very easy to stay at home and state one’s inability to change it alone. Looks like we are still unaware of the power of “Power to Vote!”
@ Shuvayu
Charity should start with using less of the air conditioner
@ maximus
When we have our right to vote we want to give it up. When we see countries like Pakistan working like pseudo democracies we express a much contrary opinion.
@unconv_gemini
I am proud of you. You are the person who can make a difference. Just one word of caution.
Power Corrupts….Absolute power absolutely!!
Most people were quite clean when they first entered politics. I guess thats the way of life. We are not mature enough to handle power. That I think is the crux of the matter. We need to develop minds that remain unmoved and detached from the fruits of power while focusing on the task at hand.
U proud of me for what?. I havent even voted yet!!…:)
But ya the thought, of having clean/mature minds whos honesty cant be shaken by the power is great and sounds very difficult to achieve, but will surely help….
@ Shuvayu, CHARITY????????????