Go ahead, vote!

We all wait for our 18th birthday ever since we enter teenage. Why? It’s pretty obvious. Because we become adults. We can drive without the fear of policemen catching us and we having to bribe them or have our vehicles confiscated. We can go to bars and discos because we’re officially legal to do that now. We can buy porn and have sex legally. But wait a second, are we forgetting something?

Yes, we are. We managed to remember all the facilities we get when we turn 18 but we forgot our fundamental duty. The one because of which the two digit 18 has such a significance. 18 is voting age, and voting is the first thing that the youth can do to bring about a change. What I say might sound exaggerated. You might be thinking that I’m saying useless stuff because you know the importance of voting and everything. But the fact is that most people don’t bother. And this fact is pretty evident if you decide to visit some government allocated Voter ID card making places. I recently did and the scene wasn’t very encouraging. I think I visited some 5 centres and only one of them had a few people. Others were completely empty. The one that did have some people was in a rural area and all the people were either middle aged, or old. I couldn’t see even one young, enthusiastic person. And that wasn’t very heartening.

We do get Voter ID cards made. But the thing is, how many people actually cast their votes after getting these cards made? Most do it just because they serve as an identification proof and can be used at the time of taking admission into an institution, opening a bank account or buying a new mobile phone connection. And people have a lot of excuses ready for not casting their votes, the major one being that all the people contesting are corrupt. So why vote for them? Another one would be that the only guy who’s honest has no chance of winning because the other party is buying votes and distributing liqour to woo voters.

My simple logic, my friend, is that by not casting your vote, you’re not doing any good. You’re only making the situation worse. If you don’t vote, you have no right to say that the leader is corrupt and no development would take place because of that. You, in a way are also responsible for bringing him into power because you never voted for the other contestant. When you are given the power to choose your leaders, you must do it. If both of them are corrupt, go vote for the less corrupt one. He might not do as much damage as the other one. And lesser damage done is progress in a way. Maybe you know that the honest candidate can’t win, but still, go ahead and vote for him. The other person will not have a landslide victory that way and will not be able to blatantly abuse you because he knows he might lose power in the next election. See, it’s the same thing. If everyone keeps thinking that the honest guy can’t win, who will vote for him? Nobody will. And that’s no solution. So don’t think too much, just see which candidate is better and vote for him/her. Who knows one day you might be contesting in an election against an influential but corrupt guy. That day, you’ll have yourself to blame if you lose because when you had the chance, even you didn’t vote for the honest guy. But if you did vote, and you win your election too, that day you’ll be happy and you’ll change the face of the country, the world and what not.

The Constitution gives you your Rights. Now it’s upto you to fulfill your duties. I’ll end it with the same abused and over used line that Uncle Ben said to Peter Parker in Spiderman – With great power, comes great responsibility. With rights, come duties. And you must fulfill those duties. Amen.

– Ish