NOBODY SEES WHO I CAST MY VOTE FOR... NOBODY HEARS TOO!

Pic.: Sherry Haridas

In my ninth-standard English text-book, there was a lesson on John F. Kennedy. And, that was the first time, I heard about the famous line from his inaugural speech: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

Much later in life, when I came across the management jargon, ‘Being Proactive’, I thought of Kennedy’s famous words and realized, that when we all start blaming the country or the government for our miseries, we come about as  the worst lot to live in this country!

Let me tell you this:  no matter how much I pay in taxes and no matter how much I am made to believe that the elected representatives of our country are callous, corrupt etc... I have refused to buy the argument that all our problems can be solved by the government we vote to power...

True, the government has to be accountable... transparent, honest and committed. True, we expect our representatives to deliver what they promise... But, then, to paint a certain party as corrupt and a certain party as honest with one straight stroke is being naive. It ‘is misleading and harmful.

Too much is made out of these elections... Too much through the advertisements, print, electronic and social media... All to sway our opinion in certain direction... all to make us either like or dislike some party... love or hate it. Yes, all to tell us, “Look, here is certain party, and if voted to power, your problems and miseries will be over.” And, we get carried way by it, vote the party to power... and, then?

So, it is party politics. And, it will work only on that logic...

Well, I do not intend to add more pollution through my Post...

I am proud of our democracy... and, I am privileged to be its citizen. Yesterday, when I stood for close to forty minutes in the queue to cast my vote, I felt the power of the privilege called Democracy... The voting centre was in one of the heavily-crowded buildings of SRA (Slum Rehabilitation Authority). A school is being run in one of these buildings... This school was our voting centre. In the long queue, waited we all – the young and the old... the rich, not so rich and the poor. My maid servant was there with her daughter, our Society watchman was there with his mother... and, we all had to wait in the same queue for the same purpose, and, above all, with the same power in our arsenal: our voting power!

“Who are you going to vote?” I overheard someone in the queue asking another.

I held my breath!

Only a broad smile was the answer!

“My friend, nobody sees who I cast my vote for,” that smile seemed to convey, “Nobody hears too!”

When I saw this, I felt even more convinced that, despite whatever they say about my country - its democracy, its government - we are a wonderful people... Not all of us are fools or herd... Not all of us can be taken for a royal ride...  Yes, governments come and governments go... but, our faith in the democracy – in the silent power packed in our single vote – remains unmoved... Yes, we all – the masters and servants – stand in the same queue, wait for the same duration, for the same purpose and with the same hope...

Last afternoon, I came home, once again, a lot convinced, that what President Kennedy had said was – and is -  so true...

NOTA – ‘None Of The Above' – is a cynical choice!

We, always, have a choice if we stop asking what our country or the government can do for us... and start asking what we can do for our country...

Vote for self-belief... Hope!

GERALD D’CUNHA