Voting..

I decided to start off by not speaking of a shallow life experience or a humorous incident I was involved in; rather I stand here to talk of something that concerns us all very deeply.

“War is a necessary evil”, I was once told… An excuse to serve as a means to an end…The very purpose of war has been personal motive… War has always been an integral part of every country and will of course continue to be so… Nothing we say or do can put a stop to it… So let us all, first of all, clear this assumption, that we can stop war from occurring… It’s just an unrealistic assumption…

I am a practical individual, to be honest; I feel that there is no human on the face of this Earth who isn’t looking for personal gain… Even the leaders of this so called world aren’t an exception to my words… We humans are a perfect blend of hatred, jealousy and mercilessness. Nothing short of it can describe us best. Let’s put my practicality to the test. To prove that the world won’t stop to achieve its selfish goals I’ll state a few examples.

Osama Bin Laden destroys the twin towers, to promote his goal of spreading terrorism. President Bush reacts by bombing Afghanistan, killing infinite number of people, just to secure his position as President. Furthermore, Iraq is bombed, supposedly, to recover nuclear weapons (which, incidentally, were never found). Yet what did the U.S. get from that war? Oil of course, an abundance of black gold to satisfy their personal motives!

We all are well informed citizens of our country. We do realize that we are facing the biggest war that we face every 5 years… The general elections… With all the accusations, the shoe throwing, the finger pointing, I daresay, we can term it as a war. This “war” that we go through every 5 yeas according to me needs to be put under the microscope. It’s become more of a sham than an official procedure. I feel that every citizen, myself included, should glance into his selfish self and ask what he does for the benefit of his country?

Now, you must be wondering where the subject of war is involved in this. War, my friends, is commonly mistaken for a war with guns and politics. I on the other hand, today, urge you to wage a different kind of war. A war upon yourself, upon your conscience! There is need for constant vigilance. By waging this war upon ourselves we not only try and understand what is good for our country but what needs to be done. When I tried this thesis upon myself (I’m practical, so I had to try it upon myself before setting it upon you all) I realized that it isn’t necessary for me to vote for a candidate! I don’t need to! Why should I be compelled to vote for candidates undeserving and unqualified?

I really started too feel that the Right to Vote was just another formality we had to rehearse every 5 years. It isn’t something substantial. Look around you, candidates standing for political organizations with criminal records! Utter blasphemy of the Indian political system. Yet, when we do not vote we are given lectures of wasting our precious votes! Doesn’t anybody realize, that when we don’t HAVE any candidates who deserve the job. No such a candidate deemed fit for it.

My war gave me a truce! It made me realize that the next time I vote... I make it a point to vote for only the candidate who is sufficiently qualified and deserving! That is why I urge you to wage a war of conscience with yourself ASAP!! It benefits us all! And do remember, the person who buys your vote today, sells your future tomorrow!