It's been a day after the voting was conducted in Mumbai. And today morning was the time to check how we fared to 5 years ago in terms of number of people coming to vote. It was good to see an increase in voters. But that increase hides the fact that the overall turnout of 50% is still very low. And this comes after there were numerous articles stating that people with non-voter ids will be able to register on the spot by filling the so called "Form 7". Or so we thought.
As my friends were eager to give a vote, I thought, as a good citizen of this country, I should inform the things I know. As some of them didn't have a voter id, I thought it would be best for them to register on the spot. Also, when I first read about it, I thought it was an amazing idea and would really help in bringing more people to vote. And thus, we went to the polling station that was close to our place, and as many of us saw that we were on this, gave our vote. Surprisingly, when we asked about the "Form 7" and that some of us didn't have a voter id and that they wanted to vote, the officials present gave one answer in their typical tone "List madhe naav naahi tar naahi hou shakat" (If your name is not on the list then it's not possible). When we asked about the Form 7, they didn't have any clue what it was and also said that we were wasting their time. Then, I thought most areas may not have been informed about this, so I tried to make them understand what it was. Instead of help, they started with a ton of abuses and was told to get lost.
Suddenly, one of them had a soft heart and said there are political party cards given at every flat in your area. If you have that, then it's possible or you can go to a party and create a new one. It was astonishing at how ignorant most of them were. So, we tried to find out about the political party cards. Even that was only with those who had registered for the voter id a few months back. To those who think everyone is just not willing to come out to vote, we tried our best but the authorities just didn't let us. Overall,I thought that the way the voting was handled was thoroughly disappointing.
As my friends were eager to give a vote, I thought, as a good citizen of this country, I should inform the things I know. As some of them didn't have a voter id, I thought it would be best for them to register on the spot. Also, when I first read about it, I thought it was an amazing idea and would really help in bringing more people to vote. And thus, we went to the polling station that was close to our place, and as many of us saw that we were on this, gave our vote. Surprisingly, when we asked about the "Form 7" and that some of us didn't have a voter id and that they wanted to vote, the officials present gave one answer in their typical tone "List madhe naav naahi tar naahi hou shakat" (If your name is not on the list then it's not possible). When we asked about the Form 7, they didn't have any clue what it was and also said that we were wasting their time. Then, I thought most areas may not have been informed about this, so I tried to make them understand what it was. Instead of help, they started with a ton of abuses and was told to get lost.
Suddenly, one of them had a soft heart and said there are political party cards given at every flat in your area. If you have that, then it's possible or you can go to a party and create a new one. It was astonishing at how ignorant most of them were. So, we tried to find out about the political party cards. Even that was only with those who had registered for the voter id a few months back. To those who think everyone is just not willing to come out to vote, we tried our best but the authorities just didn't let us. Overall,I thought that the way the voting was handled was thoroughly disappointing.
(y)
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