On the 18th birthday, government enfranchises you with a right to vote. A right to vote, based entirely on the basis of age. Practical? Logical?
Imagine a revolution and re-engineering of the voting system in India. How would it be if the voting rights are not granted to those who turn 18, but are granted to those who pass a certain examination or a test after he/she is 18? This examination or a test could be designed to gather the intellect of the person, his moral ethics and responsibility of his/her character. For example, imagine a man who indulges in wicked activities to an extent that he will waste his family money over it and keep his children's education at bay. Assume that he exercises strict violence at his house, and is incapable of keeping his own house robust on his shoulders. How valid it is to allow him the right to decide about the country's future when he can't even decide about his own family's fate?
There might be very high odds of having such people in a locality as compared to those who are highly literate and are well-aware of the political leaders, who are representing a certain party in the election process. These few, but very important votes will be overwhelmed by the huge number of votes by those who vote for a particular party based on caste, creed or an inspirational speech that that leader few days pre-election.
Voting for a leader today in India is more or less like voting for your favourite singer or a chef in today's TV "reality" shows. Except that in voting for a leader, you wake up in the morning, stand in a queue and punch a button for a party you "think" is good for India. Given the literacy rate of our country, a huge percentage of people still cannot sign. I repeat, how valid is it to grant such an individual to decide about a leader who is right for us? Democracy is the reason why they can vote. But, if another barrier is added in the eligibility list to make the national citizens eligible to vote, there will be an erudite population with satisfactory knowledge about Indian politics. Democracy will still be served, as every 18 year old will be eligible for this test. This does not demand discrimination, but it is only an attempt to make every vote weigh significantly.
Most people tend to mimic their political views from their parents, or friends or maybe an inspirational speech they heard on TV. Many people have limited views about Indian politics, and much lesser knowledge about the number of scams and scandals that come up in the newspapers, which include the politicians, which we vote for. Thus, in light of such infelicitous events, voting system if changed, might actually bring better leaders in power.
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Imagine a revolution and re-engineering of the voting system in India. How would it be if the voting rights are not granted to those who turn 18, but are granted to those who pass a certain examination or a test after he/she is 18? This examination or a test could be designed to gather the intellect of the person, his moral ethics and responsibility of his/her character. For example, imagine a man who indulges in wicked activities to an extent that he will waste his family money over it and keep his children's education at bay. Assume that he exercises strict violence at his house, and is incapable of keeping his own house robust on his shoulders. How valid it is to allow him the right to decide about the country's future when he can't even decide about his own family's fate?
There might be very high odds of having such people in a locality as compared to those who are highly literate and are well-aware of the political leaders, who are representing a certain party in the election process. These few, but very important votes will be overwhelmed by the huge number of votes by those who vote for a particular party based on caste, creed or an inspirational speech that that leader few days pre-election.
Voting for a leader today in India is more or less like voting for your favourite singer or a chef in today's TV "reality" shows. Except that in voting for a leader, you wake up in the morning, stand in a queue and punch a button for a party you "think" is good for India. Given the literacy rate of our country, a huge percentage of people still cannot sign. I repeat, how valid is it to grant such an individual to decide about a leader who is right for us? Democracy is the reason why they can vote. But, if another barrier is added in the eligibility list to make the national citizens eligible to vote, there will be an erudite population with satisfactory knowledge about Indian politics. Democracy will still be served, as every 18 year old will be eligible for this test. This does not demand discrimination, but it is only an attempt to make every vote weigh significantly.
Most people tend to mimic their political views from their parents, or friends or maybe an inspirational speech they heard on TV. Many people have limited views about Indian politics, and much lesser knowledge about the number of scams and scandals that come up in the newspapers, which include the politicians, which we vote for. Thus, in light of such infelicitous events, voting system if changed, might actually bring better leaders in power.
Firstly, it is not an easy task to conduct an examination for a billion people. Given the problems that keep coming up while conducting ordinary educational examinations, conducting an examination on this big a scale shall be difficult.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, if elections can be rigged, then there is no saying that these examinations can not be rigged.
Thirdly, conducting an examination of this nature is indeed difficult since the parameters of evaluation are not easy to decide.
So, although the concept of 'responsible voting' is truly a nice idea, practically implementing it is pretty much impossible