Elections in India have always been a high-decibel affair. A full blown tamasha, if you will. This time around apart from the usual suspects - political parties and the media, the voices of those urging people (esp youngsters) to go out there and vote were uncharacteristically loud. They were everywhere… on the streets, on the hoardings, on the net, television, FM radio, in newspapers, in colleges, corporate offices.. you name it.
The mood out there, everywhere, was… “lets vote”. Most people I personally knew were also going to vote. All this compounded by the vision of lots of youngsters in line at polling station waiting for their turn, led me to believe that this time there was going to be an unprecedented rise in polling percentage.
For all the hoopla though, Hyderabad scored way below the state average - just around 54%
To get a complete picture we will have to wait for further break-up of the statistics on the lines of age, gender, education etc..
But I simply don’t know what to make of that rather low and disappointing percentage.
A re-iteration of the ‘Indian urban voter apathy’ syndrome?
Or was it merely a failure on my part to actually appreciate the kind of numbers we are dealing with here?
True, many first time voters were mobilized and inspired to vote, but extrapolating that to represent some sort of a tiny-winy social revolution, was a mistake?
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And about that blue mark...
Yes, I have it on my left hand’s index finger. I cast my vote today. For the first time.
08:15 - 16 Apr 2009 - St. Anthony’s High School
2 comments:
I hope all these 'new' votes make a difference. If they do not, one can only pray for endurance of all this neo collective motivation.
Thats the point.. these new votes are insignificant in number (at least as of now) when you consider the total voting population.
Also, I hope that these votes were not cast to see instant results. Patience and Endurance, like you put it, is needed.
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