Polled

Municipal elections took place today. My first municipal vote & my second vote in my life! For once I actually decided to go for the “refuse to vote” option & exercise my right to refuse my vote. (A certain article 49-O of the Indian constitution allows you to do so) Entered the room. Me and mom & there was no other voter at that particular time in our room. And there were at least 8-9 polling officials. Seemed like a huge number at that time. Mom’s procedure went on smoothly. She got verified & cast her vote(to whom I refuse to spill out for obvious reasons).
And then it was me-predecided to refuse my vote. Got my verification done. Signed the copy reverse. God knows why but that what the officials insisted upon. Maybe they saved a bit of ‘hard’ work in this way!!! The ‘hard’ work of turning the copy every time someone signed.
And then I said “ami amar vote ta cancel korte chai”
One replied “mane?”
Another said “eta abar ki? Erom hoy na.”
“Cancel korben mane”
“Ami vote dite refuse korchi”,I explained.
“O achha haan ota hoy,kora jay”,said one of the polling officials.
“Haan eta koriye dichhi thik e,kintu apni amader khatalen besi.Ekhn amader khatte hobe abar”,a visibly reluctant official replied.
He wrote down “refused to vote” beside my name,visibly dissatisfied by the extra khatni I imposed on him.
I went on to get the voter mark on my hand when the person giving the mark said “apni to vote e denni keno debo daag?debo na.”
“Apni bhul korchen ami vote diyechhi,niyom onujayi apnake kali lagatei hobe”,I replied.
“E abar kemon vote dewa holo,keno kali lagabo?”,asked the person controlling the EVM.
“Etao ek prokar vote dewa,kali lagan”,replied the official who seemed to be the most knowledgeable of the lot.
And there was I. Democratic right fully exercised while being a good citizen.
But the furore I created in a calm & quite polling booth with some ignorant officials just by refusing to vote proves one thing. That the common people hardly know theirs rights & some of the basic rules of the game. This refusal to vote after registering yourself in a polling booth is to me a slap to all those politicians and parties to whom the only thing that matters is exploitation of power. I’ll not take any names coz all the parties are same at the end of the day. The very fact that none of the political parties let know the common people of 49-O proves that what they care is selfish gain. Exploiting the common people of their basic rights. I’m sure only a handful of Indian citizens(specially Bengal citizens) know of this rule. Had they known it I personally feel a huge number of people wud have chosen this path.