Voters across India are constantly reminded by the Civic Society and officials of Election Commission that vote is the most “Powerful Weapon” they have in their hand. With this weapon they can make or break a politician, a political party and also bring about a complete change in the government and governance.
Generally most voters take voting as a serious responsibility and accordingly they head towards their respective voting booths early in the morning and stand in a queue, waiting for their turn to cast their precious vote. Sometimes they may have to spend hours to cast their sacred votes to the party candidates of their choice.
Now choosing candidates and the party that have nominated them is not a casual matter. Lot of thinking, discussing and reading of the party’s manifesto, promises made, ideologies professed by the candidates of different political parties, are weighed, analysed and compared to that of the other party’s candidates and a final decision is made and accordingly the votes are cast.
It is to be noted that behind every vote cast there are expectations, hopes and aspirations and that the candidates on winning the election will be true to their words, promises and ideologies whether they become a member of government or opposition. No one ever votes for a candidate with an expectation, that if he/she wins, he/she should resign or join or defect to another party for the sake of money or position or power. If any candidate does that, such action is considered as treason and invites ire of the voters, in spite of various reasons offered to justify such deplorable action.
Unfortunately such things do happen with impunity in different States of India and that includes Goa too. Morals, ethics and promises are thrown out through the window like bits of paper, with scant respect to the voters who were primarily responsible for the candidate’s victory.
It’s shocking to see the elected representatives changing parties for greener pastures at the drop of a hat. Is our precious vote losing its importance? Certainly the anti-defection law has virtually become toothless and needs urgently to be amended if we wish to bring sanity to politics of defections by inserting necessary changes that will make defections very difficult and will invite severe punishment, that may even include a provision of disqualification for at least 6 years.
Now consider what is happening in the States of Maharashtra and Haryana, the two States which are going for election on October 21. The way the leaders of Opposition particularly Congress leaving their parties and joining the BJP, either looking for better opportunities or being on safer wickets. Just imagine the predicament of the voters who may not be the supporters of BJP but left with no other alternative. Looks like they will either avoid voting or resort to NOTA. The way things are being shaped up, it appears that we are heading towards One Nation with just One Party in a few years. Will this augur well to India’s democracy?
