Tomorrow (16th Feb)there are the BMC elections voting and the campaigning has ended. The candidates are wooing the people in my locality, a working class housing area (called slum) by cash and gifts. The rate of one vote is Rs.1200 to 1500. The poorest of the poor or the disadvantaged group (as termed by Governmental agencies) are offered money in lieu of their votes, that too on a mere verbal promise that they will vote for their candidate. Family of 8-10 are offered LCD TV’s and larger the number of voters, expensive the gift. And there, I sat alone with nobody to woo me, as if it’s written on my face that I will not sell my vote.
The poor people who accept the money and cast their vote, seldom know that the candidate after winning the election will make more money by corrupt means and after five years or five generations down the time line they will be still plying for water, fighting for the sanitation, fed up of potholes on roads, filth covering the roads, open potholes and in the end dying with lack of affordable medical treatment. At that time they will be cursing the current system and will even participate in the rallies / dharnas/fasts/ andolans against corruption. Will they ever realize that they themselves are responsible for the corruption? The literate (not educated) class will go for one day picnic or will be too busy to cast their vote for the right candidate. For the literates, all the politicians are thieves and should be hanged. The result, Voter turnout is less than 50 %. This condition lacks any hope and makes the mind of a patriotic person go numb. The known freedom fighters would have been crying in their graves and so the unknown soldiers.
I have been taught to look at the positive aspect of the story and I should never let the fact miss from my conscience that at least during the time of elections the poor man gets his share of the financial help, not from government as aid, but from the parties as bribe. The person who always has to bribe the system at least gets his due. The help which is sent for him is pocketed by the politician-bureaucrat nexus. It is the only at the time of election rallies, that his son enjoys the delicacies of unlimited vada pavs, pav-bhajis, paneer tikkas, pizzas, chicken and all dishes ranging from Rs. 5 to 500/-. He himself drinks whisky /beer to the fullest of his capacity. The only favour he needs to do is to be a part of the election crowd and accompany the candidate. No special work needed, nor any special qualifications and all his expenses are taken care of. The government should have at least have four elections every year. This will make sure that the money reaches to the poorest of the poor. In fact, it is the best way of getting the black money out and arresting its flight in foreign tax-havens.(I remember , in the Union Budget’ 2007 the then finance minister imposed a surcharge of Rs 10 on every ATM withdrawals of Rs. 10000 or more on precinct of getting black money out.)
We already have election of Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabha & Nagar Palika in cities and Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabha, Zilla Parishad, Panchayat Samiti & Gram Panchayat at Village levels. We can add two to three more sabhas and samitis and ensure that elections are held regularly. The unemployed family members of the local politician will also get some work. Schemes like MNREGA, NHRM and food security can be easily scrapped once government thinks seriously on my proposal. This will also help the government to guage its popularity among masses and more importantly it will stop Babas/ Annas/and other idle people from staging any protest and even if they do, people will hardly support them.
This will surely make India poverty free and increase our GDP. Is the government listening?
What do you say?
P.S : the voter turnout for BMC elections was 46% and the ruling coalition was able to maintains its power.
