Election Corner

India during election times is like no other place in the world.The whole look of a city changes. Banners are hung across every street. Posters are hung on every inch of space. Loudspeakers blare campaign slogans constantly. Every party holds huge rallies for their supporters and often distributes food or blankets to everyone who attends. Things have improved a lot in the last 10 years. The key to the change has been awareness. Everybody is very interested in the news, and they discuss political issues (and movie stars) constantly. When people are illiterate, often one person who can read will read the newspaper out loud to a group and then they discuss the issues. Every newspaper, even in rural areas, contains a lot of news about the rest of the world, not just local news. The most important factor that helps awareness, of course, is the television. In our state, Tamil Nadu, for example, the government ordered that every village must have at least one television. People in these rural villages can watch programs in their own regional languages. Political parties know how important television is, and most have created their own cable TV stations. All said and done, most difficult aspect of democracy in India is the caste system. The caste system is a ranking of traditional, hereditary levels in society that have determined a person’s occupation and role in Hindu society for thousands of years. Caste system has reined the vote bank these days.

For the first time I have decided to come forward and cast my vote in this year's general elections. It is high time we realized how caste based votes and winners who emerge out of it are changing the way democracy is viewed in the Indian perspective. We were one of the earliest democracies. Today we are among the largest democracies. But corruption and the titular politicians of today are leading us in a wrong direction. One important step from the voter's side is to change the way these politicians get elected. People who understand the depth of corruption and the dirty political hand which rules this country are those who dont take the pains to go and exercise their fundamental right to vote. If a mass from this class of people come down to vote we can be sure of changin the way we decide our leaders. A more discernible way of voting will definitely change things.

Come forward to vote Young Man!!!!!!!