My uncle was a respected politician when politics in India was not a bad word. And when I turned 21 (not 18 as is the voting age now), he explained to me the importance of voting as a citizen of India. “It is your intelligent choice, your intelligent right. Do it right,” he said. I did cast my vote. Some years later, he again checked on my voting decision. “Especially now since you are a journalist,” he added with a gentle smile. I told him I refused to vote as all the candidates seemed unworthy. They were either paan-spitting illiterates, goons, scamsters or roadside gundas. I would rather refrain from voting for such unpleasant characters in the political scene, I stubbornly argued. “Then you will never vote at all.” It was a statement not a question and it echoes true even today.
The polish seems to have acquired a new glint though, making way for a new breed of politicians we are to select and elect. Those who get boxed, inked or slapped. Those who are more infamous for wreaking riots than famous for economic development. Or those who stoop so low as to drag the Army and communalise it in their election speeches. Or those slick kinds who cannot mouth smarter words beyond woman empowerment. And those who advises poor farmers it’s better to kill than commit suicide. But, that’s another story.
At 18, I was more excited about getting my driving licence than voting. Fortunately, today’s 18-year old is excited about both, more ebullient about the latter and politically correct and savvy enough to know for whom to cast his precious vote. Considering the country’s youth is to change the political history and future of India, and likely to upturn the final outcome of the election, this swelling first wave is a remarkable development, an interesting consequence that has evolved. The cynics might dismiss it as a ‘trend’: as most things associated with youth ubiquitously are. As India begins the world’s largest election, these young voters ranging between 18 and 25 years of age would and should matter.
But what has made this lot suddenly sit up, move out from their comfort zones and line up to actually cast their vote? And it’s not an online data that has to be updated while poring over a smartphone or a desktop/laptop. Their agglomerated outrage is against the three-pronged trident, pierced deep into the flesh, making them bleed profusely, painfully. Corruption. Scams. Inflation. Unemployment. And the looming aura and personal charisma of a certain political leader who has caught the popular, collective imagination of an entire nation who threatens to replace the ruling Congress party with its antiquated legacy of the dynastic Gandhi First Family. That hardliner, right-wing nationalist who made not just chai a hotter word than the hot drink, but magic mantras like employment and economic growth that seemed to have touched both the pulse and a raw nerve of the young potential voters.
This time there will be about 120 million new voters – the young bracket – voting for the first time and with more than half of the country aged under 25 years, they are a force to reckon. And be recognised.
Image courtesy: BCCL
More On >> General Elections 2014
