No Ink on My Finger

 

Since I got registered as a voter nearly a decade ago, I have been dutifully getting my fingers inked during every election. I have voted in two Lok Sabha, one assembly, and a couple of BBMP elections. 

Bengaluru has been notorious for voter apathy and every election it comes under fire for low percentages. While rest of Karnataka districts post 65-75 percent polling, Bengaluru huffs and puffs to cross the 50 percent mark and settles for a sub-55 percentage point.

Political pundits attack Bengalureans for not taking voting seriously and instead treating the day as a holiday to scoot off to nearby resorts or shopping malls. They pontificate - there is no point in cribbing afterwards for potholes, broken footpaths, traffic gridlocks, and flooding during rains. 

For me, the nearby school has remained the polling station during all the elections, and I have been casting my vote without much ado. Mostly I come across thin crowds outside polling booths and the process gets over in 15-20 minutes.

But this time, when I went to cast my vote for the assembly election, I was in for a rude shock. When I and my wife produced the electoral identity cards, the volunteers seated outside the polling booth began checking in their paper voters’ list. 

They managed to find my wife’s name and I was hoping mine must be next to it as used to be the case usually. But no such luck for me this time. They entered my ID code into their mobile phones and began checking. After some anxious moments, they too gave up saying the name has been ‘deleted’. 

I was nonplussed and could not process the information. My card changed many more hands among the volunteers and all of them keyed the number on their mobile phones, but the results were negative. They told me they have been witnessing quite a few similar cases and noted down my voter ID number.

As my wife proceeded to cast her vote I told the polling officer about my predicament. They too checked and I had a faint hope that as they are government officials their searches may be more advanced and they might stumble upon my name. But no happy ending. 

Being a long-time voter, I was complacent enough to think there was no need to check my name in the voters’ list in advance. 

A day later, I read in newspapers that after the alleged voter data theft by an NGO Chilume, the election commission had added and deleted many names, and officials said people should have been more alert.

Though I am not much of a fan of posting an inked finger selfie on social media, the inkless index finger does give me a sense of being left out.

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Inked Minority

With a heavy heart, I have to admit that on April 18 I got reduced to a minority. I was one of those dunderheads who, overcome by a false sense of self-importance, decided to junk long weekend and trudge to the polling booth to get my fingers inked.

My constituency Bangalore Central attained the dubious distinction of recording the lowest turnout in Karnataka state so far, though the second phase is pending. But it is highly unlikely any other constituency in the state would be able to replicate this under par performance. With less than 50% voters turning up, those with inked fingers got reduced to a minority. It could even give the country's voter apathy capital South Mumbai constituency a run for its money.

When I went to cast my vote this indifference was palpable though I did not make much out of it. I reached around 9.30 am and the enthusiasm of booth party workers and their willingness to help was missing.

I remember during 2014 general election the party booths were bustling with activity and booth workers were more than eager to guide voters about their serial numbers and booth numbers, often followed by a discreet message, "Please vote for Modi". During the subsequent BBMP election and the assembly election, this enthusiasm was there, though in a more diluted form.

This indifference was also visible at the polling booth. I was shocked to see that there was no one, let alone a queue. I was able to cast my vote in a jiffy, though while coming out I did notice some 4-5 people queueing up, I guess all from the same family.

I then thought I should not read too much into deserted polling booths. Probably I was lucky enough to be there during a lull period. 

However, by evening I realised that the malaise of voter apathy was for real and far more widespread across the city, with the constituency where I voted being the epicentre.

Bangalore has been notorious for low turnouts. And painstaking efforts by NGOs and government officials and numerous ad blitz have over the years made little difference.

While the city, in general, is drawing flak for keeping off the polling booths, a lot of people who wanted to cast their votes were shocked to find that their names have been struck off the voter's list. And these were not even first-time voters but had voted during many elections in the past. They had not even shifted their residence to warrant deletion of names.

The officials claimed voters' list is updated on a yearly basis to account for voters who have shifted their residence or died and to delete duplicate and fake entries. This gets done under the National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme. 

Looks like many bona fide voters' names too got eliminated in this 'purification' process. In Karnataka, 13.8 lakh entries got deleted since May 2018, and 5.05 lakh were from Bangalore alone

Tailpiece

Now pundits are coming up with suggestions like online voting to improve this sorry state of affairs.

Putting forth my two-bit wisdom, it won't be a bad idea to provide arrangements to absentee voters to ink their fingers near the resorts they are holidaying! It will boost tourism in the bargain.

Social media will be flooded with people posing with inked fingers in front of fancy resorts. We will have city's Page 3 glitterati posting messages like 'Just inked my finger near Orange County Kabini, now off to a coracle ride.'

If political parties can ring-fence their legislators and let them have a good time at resorts (at God knows whose money) to prevent horse-trading, why can't voters exercise their franchise amid some fun and leisure! Why should netas have all the fun!

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