In the last 15 years we have
regularly seen India being compared with China. We all are ashamed that our
growth rate has been nothing compared to China. Every-time we try to find a
reason for the same the conclusion is – India is a democracy, unlike China.
Another regular refrain we here
is – ‘Is desh ka kuch nahi ho sakta’. When we discuss why? The common response
we get is, because of the politics in this country. We believe that good people
cannot survive in Indian politics the way it is structured. In the last 2 years
we saw that changing. Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal raised the hopes of
people and we saw a very higher level of participation by people. (How much our
expectation has been met after initial euphoria is a separate debate for some
other time).
We learnt that if we have to
change the country for good we have to change the politics in this country. And
we will have to do it by remaining an outsider as the best of people once they
get into the political system they become ‘u-turn’ politicians.
Democracy looked like a perfect
system in theory and we kept failing to understand why it is failing so
miserably in practice. Then we tried to identify what are the key structures
which is making the democracy to fail so miserably. The top three reasons we managed
to identify were:
1. Low
voter turnout (lack of active participation of people in the democracy process)
2. Funding
of election expenses
3. Vote
bank politics
We concluded that this is what we
need to change to change the country. And Right2Vote is targeted to change that
forever.
1. Low voter turnout: Of all the
reasons we identified this appears to be the biggest reason for lack of
efficient democracy in the country. Democracy is meant to be –Government of the people, by the people and for the people. If people keep
cursing the Indian politics sitting in their drawing rooms and not actually
coming out to vote then we can never have an efficient democracy. In the last
national elections only 2/3rd of the eligible voters actually voted.
This excludes people who didn’t even get themselves enrolled in the voter list.
We identified following to be key reasons for low voter turnout.
I.
Laziness / time constraints / weather / long
queue: We saw a large population which was very active on social media and
other political debates, did not go out to vote just out of laziness with an
excuse from the ones listed above.
We intend
to solve this problem by bringing the booth to them. They can sit in their
comfortable home / offices and vote on their mobile in seconds. No time constrains
/ weather issues / long queue.
II.
Geographical
location / distance to booth: Second biggest reason we identified was that the
voter was geographically far away from the booth where he is supposed to vote.
This was due to several reasons including:
a.
NRIs
and others who are based out of India for employment reasons
b.
Migrants
who are located in district other than their home district for employment,
education, marriage or other reasons.
c.
People
travelling on voting day due to professional, employment, business, recreational,
social or other reasons.
d.
People
with disability, health issues, or simply lack of transportation facility
e.
Soldiers
and other government employees including election staff who are posted to
district other than home district.
We intend to solve this problem again by bringing the booth
to them no matter where they are. They can use their mobile to vote from
anywhere in the world
III.
Voter
list enrollment, verification, missing names, lack of knowledge of location of
booth: There is another set of people who were not able to enroll in the voters
list in time. Or there name was not correctly mentioned, or were not able to
get their name transferred to right district in time. Or simply, they didn’t
receive their voter id card or were not aware of the voting dates, time and
location.
We intend to solve this problem by giving the voters real
time notifications and reminders on their mobile. Government is already working
on linking all voter id cards with Aadhaar numbers and the mobile numbers. We
will be sending regular notifications and reminders to voters not only for
voting but also in case of any formalities need to be completed by them to be eligible
for voting.
2. Funding of election expenses: It’s a well-known fact that
all candidates spend much more than the permitted amount in elections. The
result is people need substantial funding to fund their election expenses and as
these expenses are beyond the permitted limit it has to be done with black
money.
Election expenses increases exponentially because election
happens over months in India. All advertising campaign on national Medias like
print, television, social media need to be carried on again and again for
months. With Right2Vote the manpower required to manage the election is
negligible and hence election can be held on the same day all over the country.
This would substantially reduce the campaigning budget. Also, with complete
voter population connected and registered for e-voting reaching out to them by electronic
means and during targeted advertisement would be much cheaper than print and television
and much more efficient then outdoor mediums like posters, banners, door to door
visit and election rallies.
3. Vote bank politics: Indians still vote based on the candidate’s caste and religion rather
than based on national issues that affect them. Due to this reason most parties
come up with promises which are to appease certain communities and get their
vote. National interest takes a back seat.
With Right2Vote a huge population of migrants including
international and national migrants would be added to the voter list. These are
people who have moved out of their protected communities and living in a cosmopolitan
environment and are less susceptible to vote bank politics. These migrants are
generally averse to caste or religion based vote bank politics and would
generally avoid candidates who seek vote based on caste and religion. This will
force political parties to rethink their election strategies and avoid vote
bank politics. Also, if elections are held in a day rather than over months,
the political parties would be forced to talk on common national issues during
elections rather than focusing on regional vote banks.
What we have mentioned above is only during elections.
But beyond elections also, in an effective democracy public should be able to
get involved and voice their opinion on key policy decisions like net
neutrality, Gay rights, odd even etc. Right2Vote platform aims to make Indian
democracy more participate.
We look forward to your participation to realize our
common dream of effective and efficient democracy in India. Please download the
app Right2Vote from Android’s
play store or Apple’s app store.
