Crisis time ahead in our electoral process; Time to revisit and reinvent our electoral decision making process

In a country like India where around 27% people are illiterate and at the same time the highest vote was opted in 2014 to the winning party 31.34%, difficult to understand the selection of right representative for the nation. Is our system great and good enough to select the best candidate?

Adding insult to our injury is in India a person called literate if he or she aged seven years or above can read and write with understanding. It does not mean the person has all the rationality and prudence to select the best one.

Our electoral process looks to be stereotype and mundane. Electoral parties still advocating and canvassing their stance by following the 80’s and 90’s methods. They are chanting and shouting their yesteryear achievements which are supposed to be claimed by their opponents. Do our citizens and netizens are smart and shrewd enough to make out their political gimmick or they befuddled and perturbed to select the right option.

The electoral system gradually becoming person specific rather than party specific. So the question arises are we casting our vote to a party or person? Does a person good enough to shoulder the entire burden of the party in terms of good and bad and ups and downs.

Corruption is creeping into our system like a bad tsunami. Time will tell whether we can grow our stature to surpass the tectonic wave. For an instance a state like Odisha which is languishing at the bottom in terms of poverty, second last in India but when it comes to the amount of illicit money and liquor it stands tall at 18^th position out of 36 states and UTs.

The only thing which impresses us in recent times in the electoral process is casting the NOTA option. The none of the above option or NOTA as it popularly is known has attracted a good number of voters in various elections. When a large number of voters will press the NOTA button, it will force political parties to choose better candidates. According to the Supreme Court, negative voting would lead to system change in polls. Where Nota has come to signify voter disenchantment with the selection of the candidate, but which voter group is the most disenchanted? According to the survey, 2.5% upper cast voter opted for NOTA in 2014 Lok Sabha election. The upper cast voters who may have chosen the NOTA option more than any other class or minority group.

Casting an unbiased vote is the most indispensable weapon in the citizen armory. Better not to waste for the sake of short term benefit rather than long term vision.