Polling during elections

I woke up fully charged and with a feeling that the destiny of Tamil Nadu is in my hands! yes, it was polling day and I pushed my wife and children to get ready for voting. I was in a bit of hurry. The last time when I went with my family to cast our votes a bit late after lunch, the officials remarked that I can not be voting for the second time!! yes, some one had already cast my vote!!

Luckily, we reached around 7.45 am and stood in the line for more than an hour and successfully cast our votes in the Electronic vending machines!! we sighed a sense of great relief and pride that our votes will count in the destiny of our nation!

Even while I was in the queue, i could see lots of heated exchanges between the voters and the officials as in many cases the names of the voters did not figure in the list or some one had already impersonated the voter and cast his vote! Despite issuance of Voter id cards, there were many complaining that their votes have been cast by someone else.An 80 year old man named Venkatraman Krishnamurthy who was escorted by his son to the polling booth was told that his vote was already cast and this poor old man who had taken the trouble of travelling from his house to the polling station was at great loss and shock that his valuable vote was already cast!! He was naturally very angry and murmured that he will not be surprised if someone else is found on his bed when he reaches home! Many of the voters standing in the queue understood the sense of humour in him and laughed. The reality is quite disturbing and makes one think if this is the kind of Democracy that our country deserved?

I distinctly remember the time during my school and college days in Delhi in the late 60s and 70s during the elections. Around 3PM some volunteers of parties used to come to the house and request the household to go over to the booth to cast their votes. this used to be the courtesy. In modern times, there are truck loads of impersonators available in any name as the situation warrants and who are ready to sell their conscience for a few hundred bucks and go to vote on behalf of somebody to bring electoral gains to a political party who is ready to spend the money for them. The degeneration of morale and cultural system is alarming and calls for attention and redress. I am sure there will be a few hundreds or even thousands of elderly people like Venkatraman Krishnamurthy who would be disillusioned by the erosion of values and virtues brought to our society by our leaders and people alike?

It is time that minds are applied to check this erosion of values and restore confidence in people of all ages who are eligible to vote that they will surely find their name on the voters list and will vote for sure. That will be a day when we proudly call ourselves the largest Democracy!!