Before reading this post, I reccomend you to take a look at the website called http://www.indiaagainstcorruption.org that claims that they have started yet another freedom struggle that could make it to the history text books of next generation. Needless to say, there are a lot of people supporting this; the cleanest and ‘mahatma’ kind of pure minds.
I recently saw a picture sponsored by India against corruption on Facebook that is getting a lot of likes and shares and is spreading across in a viral manner. Its nothing but what I had come across wiki and some forums long ago. It was unfortunately a hoax that is being spread about the Rule 49-O in The Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961. The poster shows some people standing with their voter ID cards saying “We were disappointed, but we didn’t stay home!”. The poster apparently suggests doing 49-O in-order to give a strong message to political parties that one vote for nobody. Now, look at the quotes below.
The apparent purpose of this section is to prevent the election fraud or the misuse of votes.
A hoax has been circulating which claims that if the ’49-O’ votes more than those of the winning candidate, then that poll will be canceled and will have to be re-polled. Furthermore, it claims that the contestants will be banned and they cannot contest the re-polling for their lifetime. This is false and has no basis whatsoever.
Yes, it is from Wikipedia. So, what strong message are you planning to give to the political parties? Using 49-O is little better than sitting in your home not voting. It conveys only one message. You are not interested in democracy! If you don’t vote, you are not participating in democracy and hence you allow inappropriate leaders to serve you. Then comes the self-righteous good-for-nothing statement called “They are all corrupt, there is no point in voting!”. Seriously? I don’t want to say that there are perfect leaders to vote for. But there is something that people need to do for democracy to work. They need to select the best leader that they think would be appropriate even though that is from a bad lot irrespective of flag color. If you think about it you can understand that more than any gimmicks this is the strongest statement one could give and in the long run we will have better leaders.
Now, the story doesn’t end here. For all those people who say the leaders are corrupt, have you ever managed to ask that to yourself? If your answer is no, you must go through this interesting blog by vadakkus to know how are we corrupt and what went wrong in the anti-corruption movement. So, a plea to those pure souls: in this sorry state of affairs, why don’t you show an example to all those corrupt ones by contesting in election, winning and having a corruption-free political career? Not interested?
The very purpose of an election is that the representatives should be chosen by the people. Encouraging people not to express their preferred candidate goes against the intended purpose.
Also read: India’s Middle Class Revolutionaries
vadakkus
May 28, 2012
Rule 49-O says:
“49-O. Elector deciding not to vote.-If an elector, after his electoral roll number has been duly entered in the register of voters in Form-17A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon as required under sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to record his
vote, a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in Form 17A by the presiding officer and the signature or thumb impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark.”
As circulated, there is no “Form 49-O”. There will be a remark made in the voters’ list and that’s it, it will be forgotten probably.
You rightly said, people who opt not to vote have absolutely no right to complain about the state of governance in the country. Going out and voting is of course not as “cool” as protesting on the internet, no? Bloody hypocrites!
Thanks for mentioning my blog posts