Why we vote

The Yamuna be damned!

We vote for a reason, some for a cause, some by believing in rhetoric and some for the material gains on offer. The majority of the polity in our country tends to be under the latter two categories.

Poverty is so easy to cultivate. Give the poor a cycle for a vote and they could not care less what, why or how it will affect the nation. Simple mathematics prove that this is the most effective way to deal with those who are illiterate or poor and our nation breeds them by the billion! A television set here, a water filter there really does not add to much hard work nor does it need any skills at oration, governance or administration, all it needs is deep pockets filled with orange-backs! For those who are not so poor or not so illiterate, there are a different set of skills required to woo them…!

From time immemorial, many wishing to attain political office, have believed and practiced rhetoric to such an art, that it alone (without any substance whatsoever) was sufficient to draw in the gullible. This is the preferred method as it is cost-effective; it does not cost as much as that method where material gain is provocateur for the voter. The accepted procedure being to just provide lunch and transportation to convert naysayers to yay-sayers. Such people are conducive to ‘corralling’ like sheep and mass voting making it easy for just one person to control the entire affair. There are many who have formed organizations to keep control over their ‘followers’! The organizations can be for any kind of cause or belief, caste, religion, place of work and also for the parochial. Caste and religion is the biggest draw in a nation beset with divisive forces. Self-styled gurus are the best bet as they come cheap. One only has to patronize them and do a few favors (at little or no cost) and hey presto, a million voters line up at the ballot box!

And if one such religious leader can present a couple of million voters, so be it and the Yamuna be damned. As it is we are a people who believe in killing the very waters of life, but then, that is an entirely separate subject on which reams could be written.

And if one self-styled leader can convince the powers that be that he can provide a million retired workers as voters, then his competition, a retired Lieutenant General, can go to hell in prison or the police lock-up on trumped-up charges.

This is what is happening today and those who wish to vote for the good of the nation have become a useless minority to be ignored in totality!