Sunday, April 13, 2014

Why should I vote in India?

I saw quiet a good response for my previous post on What-To-Do-With-AAP, and realized may be I should write couple of blog post on the upcoming election. So here we are with something that is very close to my heart.

Every body want us to vote this election but till now I have not seen a single person asking what should we change in our electoral system that will make sure you vote. While I have voted in all the election since I got hold of my Election Id but still I want to see some changes in our electoral system. I feel these changes will make sure people vote and vote for a better India. Here we go:

Accountability 

 
All the people who fight election is visible only for 3 months in 5 years. There is no accountability of their past performances and no punishment for their failures to do something they promised. There is no appraisal system. If you talk to them, they will say 'Janta will decide how they have performed in this election'. But here is what I wish:
  • An agenda for the whole 5 years of term.
  • Yearly Goal Settings - What they want to achieve in the coming year.
  • A yearly appraisal to find out what they had promised and how much they have achieved in the year.
  • A yearly appraisal to find out how they are working on their 5 years agenda.
Is it possible? I think yes. Can we implement this? I doubt it very much. It has to come from the candidates which is difficult. But things may change if 'Janta' starts demanding this.
 

Eligibility

 
Should their be an eligibility criteria for people to apply for becoming a MP/MLA etc.? I am sure almost all the people will say 'yes'. What should be the criteria? Apart from basic eligibility criteria, I wish it should include following:
  • A person should be between 21 to 65 years of age.
  • A person should have a graduate degree in any discipline.
  • A person should not be convicted.
Apart from the above, I strongly feel:
  • A person should fight election from the place where his election id was issued.
  • A person should not fight election from more than one constituency.
How can this be done? I think we, 'Janta' need to demand that our constitution is changed to include these eligibility criteria. Will politicians agree to this demand? I am sure they won't but we need to do this for the greater good of our country.
 

Casting your vote

 
Currently elections are fought on caste, religion and money. Somehow we, 'Janta', needs to change this. It cannot be changed overnight. We need to look at who is a better person in terms of the work he has done in the past.
 

I think we can do this

 
I think we, 'Janta', has the power to get all this implemented. Can this be done fast? Nah!  Will political parties allow this? Not a chance. We need to be patient and work towards it. How? That is something I still need to think. I will try to put down my thoughts on this in another post.
 

Please do vote

 
I won't request you to vote for a specific party but I will surely request you to Vote. Please do vote this election and all future elections. Your one vote can bring the change. I am sure a day will come when some of my wishes would come true and our electoral system will be lot better than what it is today. If you have any such wishes, please do leave a comment. May be, we can make this a place to collect all such wishes and discuss how to go about implementing them.