Your vote or their date?

The Ram Nath Kovind committee wasn’t asked to check if it was a good idea to hold polls to the Lok Sabha, the assemblies, the town councils and the village panchayats in one go. The government knew it already. The charter given to them was to suggest how to do it. Rulers these days are like that. They know what’s good for us; they need advice only on how to do the good.

- R. PRASANNAN

As discussed in this column earlier, our current rulers think we are voting too often. We waste a lot of time, energy and money by being in poll mode constantly. Every year we have a round or more of polls to one or more legislatures. The PM and ministers get distracted, the model code freezes development governance, economy slows down, the police and the paramilitary get burdened, illegal money corrupts the polity and so on.

Look at the Yanks. They vote on the second Tuesday of every leap year November, come hell, highwater, world war or bin Laden; inaugurate the new president on the next January 20th; and let him rule or ruin them for the next four years. No questions asked, no no-confidence motions moved, no mid-term polls held.