On Election Duty

Lok - Sabha 2014 Election has been unique & historical in its own way. It has been so 

interesting because of the increase in reach of Communication mediums, the social media 

and the 3rd World Parties (Which I had already mentioned in my earlier Post) joining the 

race along with the 2 traditional players.  This Election has been unique also because 

this time at least India (Not Bharat) knows what it wants and it looks like finally the 

Political Parties have realised that the old formula of divide and Rule on the basis of 

Caste and religion is now not accurate and eventually they have started talking about the 

Statistics and models which actually should be the way to Contest in a healthy way. 

However, most of the Bharat is still like a poor and innocent Manoj Kumar of bollywood 

movies and depends more on the grace of God than the policies endorsed by different 

governments.

By the way what actually provoked me to come back and write after a break of almost 15 

months is the very special experience which I had this year during the Lok-sabha elections 

in Vadodara (Gujarat) which has already been  in lime light due to the candidature of Modi 

from the constituency.

Though I had never cast my vote in any Lok-Sabha election earlier, I got an order to go 

on Election Duty as Asstt. Preciding Officer. 

I got posted in a small village called Merakuva in Savli Taluka. Though Google Maps helped 

me a bit to reach the first location i.e. Savli Taluka Seva Sadan Kacheri from where i 

along with 3 other men and a lady had to collect our EVM and other documents for our Poll 

Booth but it failed to locate my final destination which helped me realise that still 

there is an area of improvement for Google too! We had to reach Merakuva in GSRTC's 

bus which are good enough to travel. Also thanks to the Administration of Gujarat Govt. 

because even though it was a remote location and there was only a single lane road but it 

was a pakka road throughout. The road was so narrow that the bushes were infiltrating 

through the windows of our bus and had there been some other bus coming from the front,  

there was no way out to give pass . The only solution in that case would be a compromise 

by one of the buses to go in reverse gear for about 5-6 kms! 

Election duty is the only day when a Government Servant realises the efforts a Sales agent 

makes in order to sale his product from Door to door. Though you are not required to sale 

any product over here but the conditions are quite tough because of the lack of 

facilities; even the basic ones like food and shelter. You are supposed to stay in a 

classroom of a Govt. school, with no beddings or food provided by the Govt. But thanks to 

the culture of "Atithi Devo Bhava" which is still followed in Bharat as compared to 

"Atithi tum kab jaoge" in India! It is possible to survive without any facility in such 

remote and totally unknown area only because of the open hearts of the people living in 

this category of India.

One the judgement day, as the clock struck 7, people from the village and other nearby 

villages started coming to vote. What was surprising to see was that women, most of them 

hiding their face in their ghungat, who dont even know how to sign and might not have gone 

out on a trip for themselves, took out time and turned up to the booth. They didnt even 

knew whom to vote and how to vote. Most of them had to be ultimately instructed by us to 

press any of the "bhura (blue) buttons" and they just buried their finger on the button 

which they found nearest to their finger. A second instruction had to be given again to 

remove their finger from the button. A childish happiness came instantaniously as soon as 

they pressed the button and then they run away from the room with shy. Trust me this was 

the case with most of the villagers irrespective of gender. On the other hand, I was 

watching Inked Finger display pics replacing the selfies in Facebook and Whatsapp and most 

of the friends puttinh their status like : "Voted for India", "Modified" etc. Now this was 

an amazing contrast which I encountered. I was sitting in a part where people were not 

even knowing whom and why they were voting. They had their issues like un-employement, 

poverty but they were happy enough and contended. They were not complaining to anyone. 

They didn't have demands in their eyes. They didnt come to vote for change. They were not 

showing off their fingers on Fb and WhatsApp. They just came may be because some party 

agent might have dragged them there or may be they were excited to see a machine which 

gives a beep sound on pressing a Bhura button. On the other side on my so smart phone I 

was constantly getting updates of different fingers painted blue with a proud status 

"Voted for this and that". Some of them claiming the winning chances of their  favourite 

candidate and white wash chances of the other. They didn't even know that next day or the 

other when media will analyse the Polling data and will see the number of votes higher in 

NOTA or to some totally weak candidate, media will start creating an image that there has 

been a shift in the mind of people, but actually the problem is that the unexpected 

variation in the statistics represents these thousands of Indian voters who are not 

literate about the Polling or rather they are not bothered enough by the political parties and that is because 

they are not in the main stream social media and therefore it is hard enough to change 

their mind and bring them to your side.  Whereas the smarter India can easily be won by 

putting some fancy meme on some social networking website and making it viral. Crores and 

Crores of money is spent in advertisements but yet people are so illiterate towards 

Polling. How and Why ? What is the target audience of various advertisments broadcasted in 

all the meium of communication ? Is it the India which already is so active in the 

social media that it automatically decides its vote after believing what it is made to see 

or the India which is still kept in dark for no reason. I think there should be a change and the change should be in order to connect this 2 states of

a Single country
                                                                         Jai Hind