Kaun Banega Pradhan Mantri?
Isn't that the cheesiest, the cliched-est, the most unoriginal title for a post you have ever seen? I don't give a fuck if it is. The point at hand is more important than suggested by the title...or so they would have you believe.
Countless media ventures, tea-sellers, actors, professional celebrities (i.e. people who have become celebrities to earn a living, not professionals who are also celebrities as you might have thought) and their door ke chachajis have been telling you over the past few months to go out and vote, because that is the most important thing you can do in your life. What a load of bullshit!
Don't get me wrong, your vote might actually get counted. And theoretically speaking, your vote might even matter in deciding who becomes the MP from your area or even who becomes the PM of the nation! Oh, the joys of democracy! You get to choose between a mumbling old man who takes orders from the Dynasty and a blundering old man who thinks that an ancient god wants him to make a temple at the site of an arbitrarily chosen dysfunctional mosque. Not to mention the mealy-mouthed woman whose only ambition is to put up ugly statues of herself all over the landscape and the sundry other idiots who think they have a shot.
You might be brainwashed enough to brand me a 'disgruntled youth' who does not know the power of the vote, who does not take his responsibilities as a citizen seriously, who doesn't know that you have to participate to bring about a change. In short you'll call me a 'Pappu' who is not voting (seriously you guys? If you wanted to give a cool image to voting then this is surely not the way to go about it). But the fact of the matter is that it is you, the voters, who are being made pappus by this system. If the choice put before you is between a lying thief and a conniving murderer, who do you vote for Pappu? You exercize your right under Section 49-O to vote for nobody? Then why go to vote at all? To be counted? Among the people who supported mass murderers and thieves of public money? Go right ahead. I will have to decline at this point with a 'thanks, but no thanks.'
I have made my disdain for this farce called democracy evident in earlier posts. But his is not about that. I do believe that until the time that we as a society are ready to let go of this security blanket called a government, democracy is the best option we've got. And I write this article not to undermine democracy but to uphold it. Democracy is not about the right to vote as various vested interests would have you believe. Democracy is about the right to choose. And voting and choosing are not the same thing. I choose not to vote, and that is my democratic right. I choose not to support this system which encourages the immoral opportunists and stupid ideologues. I choose to say that I as a citizen of India refuse to buy into this tamasha anymore. I choose to say that I do not want any of these people to become Prime Minister. I choose to declare that these bozos do not desrve to hold any elected post.
I choose not to vote. For democracy. Join me and declare that you will refuse to vote until you have an actual choice. Refuse to be co-opted into this corrupt system. Refuse to validate the existence of these politicians (so-called leaders) by deigning to vote for them. Refuse to call this farce a democracy...in fact expose the farce by keeping the numbers so low that they can't even claim to represent the will of the people.
Don't vote if you want actual change. Not passively, but actively and vocally.
Viva la revolucion!
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