Lets Vote

Bangalore South - yeah that is my Loksabha constituency. It covers a big part of the urban population of Karnataka. Its the techie hub, major part of the population here are young software professionals. Mostly consists of well educated families. Despite all of this, I was ashamed to see the newspapers the day after the elections. Voter turnout of 47%, that is really a shame. Any citizen of India should be ashamed of himself/herself if he/she cannot be a part of biggest event of the country which happens only twice a decade. Everyone has their own reasons for not voting; corrupt candidates - how much do we really know about them? Have we actually done some research on the particular candidate? Do we know his qualifications or his works as MLA? Did we even check on the manifesto he has got for us? I'm pretty sure none of those who brand all politicians as corrupt would do that. Its an easy way out to blame someone. Its our responsibility to make our leaders accountable. The people make leaders and the people should show them that they can break them too. We all blame the system being corrupt, but at the same time, we do nothing, absolutely nothing to change it. Another excuse - I had some important work. How stupid can one get. I have seen what happened on April 23rd. Got an off from office, sleep through the day, search for some booze in the evening, and watch IPL. That is a lot of important work there.

Guys, our country's security is challenged, our economy is getting worse, crime rates are getting real high, our elders are robbed and killed, minorities are attacked, moral police dictating us what to wear, where to hang out, what to do, girls don't feel safe walking on the street, traffic issues; the list is never ending. These are our problems and we need to raise a voice to bring up a change, and a smallest thing one can do for that change is to vote. I know it takes a long long time to change the system, but let us not just watch and crib about things going wrong. The least we can do is educate the younger generation about voting and teaching them to stand up for social causes. A small initiative now may bring up a revolution later and hope we see corruption-free India.

Tomorrow is the next phase of elections, so a humble request to all - please go and vote.