Sandalwood actress, Rakshita, tells DNA readers why its imperative to exercise their basic right and cast their vote
Everyone has to understand the importance of voting. People need to realise that each vote matters. It’s surprising this has begun as a trend in the rural areas and now in cities like Bangalore. When I went to areas like Mandya and Maddur, I saw that there was a large turnout of women, including the older ones, who came out to vote in the assembly polls. They have slowly begun to understand the importance of choosing someone who doesn’t just give them a freebie, be it saris, biryani or a television set. This, I think, is happening because of the many advertisements on television and newspapers that encourage people to vote for the right people. This sort of propaganda is helping a lot. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case with the urban lot. Such areas don’t have a turnout of voters like in the rural regions. And to imagine these are the learned lot, and hence, translating into a bigger voting segment. People, instead, crib about how no one is worth their votes, and that the elections are rigged by bribes in the form of freebies. Personally, I think no politician is bad as a person. People can always choose the right leader. With the amount of young and educated politicians entering the scene, there is a seriousness setting in as far as voting is concerned. These are people that are serious about what they do, and many of them are very well-recognised professionals. This positively eliminates the presence of any riff-raff entering the system. Voting, according to the Constitution, is said to be a birthright. But people don’t understand the gravity of this basic right of theirs. The right to vote determines the implementation of all of their other rights. This is the reason I keep reiterating the fact that not only is it important to vote, but it is equally important to know who you are voting for. People seriously need to be stopped from coming up with stupid excuses in terms of not voting. Instead, they need to be proactively involved in encouraging a society that shall allow them to choose and live by their rights. It is indeed a shame that while people in the rural areas have understood this fact but ‘educated’ people have not.
