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VOTERS' RIGHTS IN INDIA: THE RIGHT TO REJECT ALL CANDIDATES
Voters in our fifty-seven-year-old Democracy have trusted and tried but, without exception, have been failed by various different political parties and coalitions. In reality, people recognise that existing parties, despite all of the purported differences between them, blindly and mutely obey the elite and powerful ruling class. We, the working people, need a party of our own – a democratic party that is accountable to the people. The question is how a citizen should vote sincerely when no party or candidate reflects her will or takes up her struggles. Voting for the 'lesser evil' will never take us towards building a genuine party of our own and will only debilitate the fight for our rights by maintaining the status quo.
In a representative democracy such as India’s, it is every citizen’s right to participate in the election of our government. The right to vote for our leadership from amongst a given set of candidates comes with a corresponding right to reject all options before us. Unfortunately, the recent switch to electronic ballots has deprived Indians of our right to the latter. In this context, we demand that the election ballot give the option of a 'VOTE AGAINST ALL CANDIDATES [VAAC]' category.
Imagine a scenario where 200,000 citizens out of all potential voters cast their vote, where the winning candidate gets a meager 20,000 votes. In this situation, 180,000 voters have articulated their democratic rejection of all contesting candidates. Thus, by officially giving the VAAC option, we would strengthen our democracy by providing a mechanism to: 1. accurately reflect the mandate given to the winning candidate; 2. separate the number of citizens that do not vote because of apathy from the number that are disillusioned by the system; 3. encourage production of genuine alternatives to present politics in the long run.
Since the elections of 1998, the Election Commission has been running a strong campaign – through newspapers, television, and other media – to promote the notion that voting is a democratic right and a civic duty of the highest order. Simultaneously, citizens are reminded not to miss the opportunity to select the representative of their choice. Why has the Election Commission become so alert and active in creating voting fever? This is at a time when sections of the people have lost all faith in the parties and their candidates due to their corrupt, unprincipled and opportunistic behaviour. Furthermore, a number of succeeding hung parliaments and premature collapse of governments have brought about revulsion among public concerning voting. To the public, elections are losing all relevance. The alertness and the initiative of the Election Commission is an attempt to curb the radicalisation of this anti-election segment of the population, lest its ideas expand beyond the realm of voting and parliament. It is in the hope of bringing this group back to the fold of mainstream politics and elections within what has become a bourgeois democracy.
Among the 30-40% of the people that never votes, there are both those who are apathetic towards politics, and those who are politically alert. Like the Election Commission, we too have noted that in recent times the non-voting portion of the population has grown both absolutely and relatively. We contend that this trend has two reasons - one is regressive, being a lack of faith in democracy and a hankering after authoritarianism or military dictatorship, while the other is progressive, being a search for a better political system going beyond the confines of parliament and the stench of its corruption. We are opposed to the former current and in favour of the latter.
But in this context, one point is important. When the Election Commission says that voting is a sacred duty – a democratic right – it is uttering a half-truth. The right to endorse the options before us is accompanied by the right to register our discontent with those same options. Yet, as citizens, we are only given the opportunity to voice our approval and are deprived of the ability to express our disapproval. This would mean that if all eligible citizens exercised their so-called duty to vote, many would be forced to do so dishonestly because of a lack of desirable candidates.
Join us in the struggle to expand the horizon of our rights. Now is the time to demand the right to 'VOTE AGAINST ALL CANDIDATES' [VAAC]. |
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Campaign VAAC
Rohit Prajapati, Vadodara
Trupti Shah, Vadodara
Kunal Chattopadhyay , Kolkata
Swati Desai, Dediapada
Anand Mazgaonkar, Rajpipla
Prasad Chacko, Ahmedabad
Madhumita Dutta, Delhi
Sushovan Dhar, Kolkata
Kiritbhai Bhatt, Vadodara
Michael Mazgaonkar, Dediapada
Xavierbhai, Rajpipla
Amrish Bhrambhatt, Vadodara
Deepti Bhatt, Vadodara |
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