V GOVERN CHRIST UNIVERSITY CUIM +918884776982 All citizens should be required by law to vote.

US intelligence has projected him as the next prime ministerial candidate for BJP contesting against the Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi in 2014 elections to decide who is going to be the shepherd of the aspirations of one billion Indians. If he comes into power our electoral system may see certain drastic changes as the one in Gujarat. Gujarat state Assembly on 19th December passed Gujarat Local Authorities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2009, making voting to the panchayat and local bodies compulsory. Gujarat has emerged as the first state in the country to move towards compulsory voting. It is the first state to given the option of negative voting in the Bill. The bill went on to say "It is observed that due to low turnout of voters to discharge their duty by exercising their right to vote, the true spirit of the will of the people is not reflected in the electoral mandate,". Is compulsory voting the best measure to ensure people will make use of the universal adult franchisee enjoyed by every Indian who is 18 years old? This land mark bill threw open the debate in various television channels and SMS polls asking whether the time for compulsory voting has come in India. Before answering this question we need to look at the mammoth size of our electoral machinery. We are guaranteed the Right to vote under the section 19 of R.P act. We earned this right for universal adult franchisee after so many sacrifices made by our freedom fighters and we continue to pay the price for that freedom in the number of soldiers who have given up their lives protecting our nations freedom. Indian electoral exercise is regarded as perhaps the largest single exercise of universal democratic franchise in history took place in 2009, as Indian voters head to the polls to elect a new national Parliament. They have done this 14 times since India gained its independence in 1947. Each time India has voted, it has been the world's largest exercise in electoral democracy. India's growing population keeps breaking its own record. This time in 2009, the electorate included 714 million voters, an increase of 43 million over the previous general election in 2004. Votes were cast in 828,804 polling stations scattered throughout the country for over 5,000 candidates from seven national political parties and several regional parties. The process involves four million electoral officials and 6.1 million police and civilian personnel. The voter turnout was around 70 % of the Indian population a good 30 % of population chose not to cast their vote due to various reasons. Result was Manmohan Singh government came to power and less than in two years the same leaders that their ballots chose are tainted by various scams and people rally behind Anna Hazare joining their hands for the fight against corruption and giving speeches on how they have lost faith in the electoral system of the country. How many of this morally obliged citizens have voted in the 2009 election? The turnout in cities of India was little over than 50 percent. Half of the urban

educated population chose to have a good holiday over the moral duty to cast vote. They would have enjoyed their holiday voting for the best dancer or a drama queen celebrity in a reality show or voting on some of the prime time news channels SMS opinion polls. Since the right to choose these representatives is in the hands of the people, it is very important that everyone in a community get to the polls to cast their ballots. If only a few people vote, then the elected representatives may not truly represent the interests of the full community. Someday you may disagree with a decision made by your representative or the Member of Parliament of your constituency or his party. The best way to make your opinion known is to go to the polls and elect new representative whom you believe will better represent you in the future. By not voting, you are in effect giving up your right to help make changes in our country. During a Loksabha, when millions of people exercise the right to vote, you might think that your single vote wont make a difference. Remember, every vote counts. Even if the candidates you support arent elected, youve still had a hand in shaping the countrys future. It is moral obligation in the part of citizens that they cast their votes on elections if you are not exercising your freedom properly. Why not make it compulsory by law? as it means a better peoples mandate than a majority one. Compulsory voting will drive the complacent youth and educated citizens into booth casting the right votes and thus breaking the shackles of caste and vote bank politics. Compulsory voting is not a new exercise it has been tested in various democracies and is practiced in over 34 countries including Australia. Since Australia adopted compulsory adult franchisee in 1926 the voting percentage has seen a dramatic increase and casting vote has become the Australian way. It also ensures politicians no more need to engage in indulging freebies and adopt market strategies like giving cash to pull voters to polling booths. It is an opportunity given to every eligible Indian that one must not miss if he/she wishes to see a particular set of people ruling the country. Another positive impact of making voting compulsory is that it creates a spread of awareness among the citizens which will help to shift the politically unaware population to politically conscious population.untry. It assures that governments will take into account those sections of population which normally are neglected of their sizes as their votes also will matter. People who know they will have to vote will take politics more seriously and with increased rates of literacy and political awareness will start to take a more active role in politics. We file tax returns without any moral benefit derived out of it , we do it because we are required to do it by law likewise casting an vote can also be made mandatory for better results. This also seeks to look new methods of voting techniques to ensure all citizens get the right to vote.

The Gujarat bill empowers the election officer designated by the state election commission to declare people who do not cast their vote as defaulter voters. They will have to present their reasons within in a month or punitive action will be taken against them. As a citizen in a democratic country every citizen enjoys certain freedom of choice to vote or not to vote. The moment you make it mandatory the very idea of democracy turns authoritarian. Negative vote a provision guaranteed by the article 49.0 of the Indian constitution whereby a citizen can cast a vote to none of the candidates. But why take the pain to go and stand in electoral queues to cast a vote for none? Parties dont need mass membership drives as people vote for/against them anyway. Less need to convince them on their policies and less need to work for them next time as they are going to cast their vote making them complacent. It trivialises campaigns, making them more celebrity run-offs than policy campaigns. Second, elections become primarily an exercise in the assertion of group identities. Where everyone steals, why shouldnt I prefer my favourite thief to yours? Indeed, a separate morality evolves in which group loyalties and kinship ties trump all else. Jai Narayanan Vyaasa on a debate on compulsory voting made this statement For the larger good of a democracy if you accept some minor limitations of the fundamental rights, which better connect candidates and voters, there is nothing wrong in it, Why do we drive on the left side? We cannot really say that we have absolute freedom because it is democracy. Similarly there are certain norms we got to follow as citizens. When we make voting compulsory it might have certain implications but the fact is that we can dilute the stake of ideology driven voters in government making as citizens with more secular attitude will also be moving to the polling booths. But how to ensure this exercise happens in a country whose voters ID cards known as the EPIC (Electoral Photo Identity Card) cards often looks like epic blunder with its electoral rolls featuring dead people , people moved to various constituencies etc., To make sure the compulsory voting takes place we need a fool proof system in place. Nandan Nilekanis dream project UIDAI (Aadhar) can be one step in this direction. Integrating Aadhar cards which has citizens unique social security number as his election card will show the exact details about the individual and also remove the anomalies in the electoral rolls. In a nation where internet and mobile is reaching more people than franking water e Voting will perhaps be the next step forward which will remove the long queues in front of polling booths to just the press of a few mouse buttons to cast their votes in the comfort of homes. Which will also pull in educated youth and NRIs to vote for their country. Perhaps one last word can be increased use of postal votes which is now only available to the government employees extending this system to the private voters and people out of demography will help in increased turn outs.

Apart from this , to develop a next generation of civic responsible citizens who are politically aware of the countrys system and votes not on the basis of party symbols but on the quality of individuals and thus eliminating the chances of scam heroes like Raja , Reddy brothers from coming to power. The single biggest investment the country has to make is on the nexters the next generation children who are going to be the future voters of this country and that is through improving literacy.