Greetings and Welcome!
Karunanidhi, asserts that LTTE Chief Prabhakaran is not a terrorist. But his UPA alliance partner Sonia Gandhi led Congress Party has always maintained that LTTE is a Terrrorist Organization and that Prabhakaran is indeed a terrorist.
On the other side of the Tamil Nadu electoral battle is Jayalalithaa - whose opinion is more of less similar to Sonia Gandhi. Whereas her alliance partners for the upcoming Elections -2009, are all Prabhakaran sympathisers.
People need to know the opinion of these "party leaders" on the armed struggle in Kashmir. Do they hold a similar opinion on Kashmir Issue? Or do they have differing views. The Nation needs to know and deserves to know.
Parties and persons with ideologically divergent views becoming bed fellows for the elections, how will one choose to vote in this General Election in Tamil Nadu? At the bottom of the heart, the common man may not be unduly worried about what happens in Sri Lanka. The voter will be bothered about his day to day affairs and his quality of life. These two things are never going to change whoever comes to Power in Delhi. The only common factor is that, whoever comes to power, will make millions of rupees. And TV channels will carry mundane post-election debates - with no benefit accruing for the common man.
Lets move onto the debate on "how to vote". The predominant view among bloggers is that one has to choose a good candidate. The second view is that one should not waste his/her vote. Lets take my vote for an example. I am eligible to vote in Chennai South Parliamentary Constituency. I have the following major choices - to vote for a DMK [Karunanidhi] candidate, an AIADMK [Jayalalithaa] candidate, a BJP candidate. In addition, actor Vijayakanth's cadidate and IIM-A pass-out Sarath Babu are in the fray.
Process of elimination is the only possible strategy at this juncture, because there is no "positive wave" across the Nation on any one good issue. So, because of Karunanidhi's denigrating anti-Hindu statements and a lot of other negative factors - my vote would certainly not go to his candidate. I personally do not know how good the cadidate, per se, is.
Jayalalithaa's man does not deserve to be in Parliament, because, he will not be in a position to raise issues in Parliament independently. Jaya would remote control him and all his actions would be at her mercy. Certainly we dont deserve such Parliamentarians in the 15th Lok Sabha.
I could have voted for the BJP if the party had a good Prime Ministerial candidate - like say Narendra Modi, who has proved to be a good administrator with a positive development agenda; and is seen to carry a mind of his own. In addition, I do not know the BJP candidate personally or through media. So voting for him, at this juncture, is a difficult choice to make.
Actor Vijayakanth's candidate is unknown - at least to whom I spoke to - and certainly in a National Election, I would be the last person to vote for a Regional or Sub-Regional or a Casteist Party. So he is a big NO.
Sarath Babu, having passed out of IIM-A last year is OK. Having jumped into the fray at the last moment, he cannot even reach out to 10% of the 10+ Lac registered voters and he losing the elections is a certainty. Moreover, he has not publicised his thoughts on various issues concerning the Nation and the Constituency. I am not against him or discouraging him, in fact I encourage such candidates to be in the fray. I am only skeptical of his chances. He may end up with few hundred votes, but that would not serve any National cause. So voting for him would be a wasted vote, at this moment.
Issues??? No. It doesn't matter to me whether Prabhakaran is a terrorist or not. It doesn't matter to me if transnational ships save few hours because of Sethusamudram Canal. Hundreds of people get killed in India every day for one reason or the other. For me this takes precedence over the massacre in Sri Lanka. My heartfelt condolences to all those sorrowing families - be it in India or Sri Lanka or elsewhere. Hundreds of thousands of crores are looted by politicians in India. Hundreds of tons of rice and other food grains are diverted away from PDS shops and black marketed on a daily basis by politicians in connivance with corrupt officials. It pains me when Tax payers' money is wasted on worthless projects - like Free Color TV distribution, Loan Waiver, Free Power Connections, Corrupt and Inefficient NREGS scheme, etc. It pains me to remember the Prime Minister's communal statement on granting the first right of use of national resources to Muslims. It pains me when I remember Abdul Madani was released from jail for want of evidence in terror acts. It pains me to see hard core anti-social persons prancing on streets because of our ineffective judicial system. It pains me when I see bright young graduates canvassing for credit cards door to door. It pains to see farmers commit suicide. It pains to know that 10+ software engineers committed suicide in Chennai in the past two months.
So how do I decide on whom to vote, when all and sundry are corrupt and do not deserve to be elected? I do not want to stay away from voting. And I do not want to vote for a [likely] losing candidate. Factors that were stacked in the above paragraphs makes the decision making process all the more difficult. I guess, it is for these types of typical-reasons, that learned and politically-aware citizens opt to abstain from voting. But I strongly feel, one should not abstain. Abstaining would be creating an oppurtunity for the corrupt parties to cast illegal votes. Voting percentages would be hovering around 30% till about 3:00 PM, but at the end of the day, the voting figures would jump to close of 70% - even though we would not have seen long queues building up post 3:00 PM! This is because of absentee votes being cast by political party agents in connivance with booth officers. Hence we should not abstain from voting - if we have an vote.
My vote is not a positive vote waiting to be cast. It is a negative vote. I don't want to abstain. I don't want to waste my vote on losing candidates. I am sure, many of you would also be in such a quandary. I never knew choosing to cast one vote was such a pain! How do I choose and vote then?
In my opinion, the winning candidate is the DMK man and the nearest challenger in this contest is Jayalalithaa's man. Most others are likely to lose their deposits. Under these circumstances, I am destined to cast my vote to Jayalalithaa's candidate!
Happy Voting :-)
Love All, and...GOD Bless India...
Ganesh Babu N R
PS: What a mockery of democracy. Everyone knows that Manmohan Singh is the PM of India and resides full time in Delhi. His home town is somewhere in Punjab. Read this news and draw you own conclusions - http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20090419/818/tnl-pm-wife-to-vote-in-guwahati.html
Ref: http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20090419/818/tnl-prabhakaran-is-not-a-terrorist-asser.html
Ref:
Karunanidhi clarifies...
http://www.hindu.com/2009/04/21/stories/2009042157820100.htm
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/karunanidhi-flip-flops-says-cant-forgive-ltte/90663-37.html
