Vote the f**k

Mumbaikars voted on Thursday 30th April 2009...some of them did that is. Voter turnout was abysmal, less than 43 percent! This after innumerable media campaigns had bombarded us for the past few months, after the economic recession and 26/11, after Aamir had urged and Amitabh had pleaded. The Page 3 junta was all out flaunting their ink spots but apparently the "outraged" Mumbaikars decided to flash the figurative middle finger rather than the literal one! Voter apathy is not new to Mumbai, but this time the pundits were expecting things to be different. The question was not why they weren't different...the question is why would they be? Would something truly motivate the people to vote in 2009?

For a person to be considered a leader, he has to be 1. Competent 2. Motivated and 3. Sincere. It is easy to find persons who can get the job done, they have (or are at least perceived to have) one or two of these qualities at the same time but very difficult to find an agent of real change (one with all three). The position of most of the parties in India today is that since the leaders projected by them are of the former kind, they are good enough to be our representatives. But why would the middle class Mumbaikar vote for someone who is going to do the job of holding the fort...the civil services can do that without a single politician.

There is also a popular misconception that if a section of the voters shows strength in numbers during an election, the politicians that come hereafter will be compelled to look into their well being. If this were true there would be no slums in Mumbai since slum dwellers are amongst the most organized voters. Persons who are benefitted by maintaining and are incapable of dealing with a change in the status quo will prefer to maintain it, as is clear by the ever expanding slums in Mumbai.

Innumerable ads exhorted that a single vote can change the consequence of an election...very true, but that doesn't mean it will significantly change the way things are getting done. The need of the hour is not more voters, it is better leaders. Exercising your franchise to choose between a rock and a hard place is not really exercising much.