TO VOTE OR NOT IS NO LONGER THE ONLY QUESTION

SIR's bureaucratic overreach has evoked fear that being struck off the voters' list could lead to denial of citizenship rights too. The government must use technology to make life easier

- K M CHANDRASEKHAR

I have never been an enthusiastic voter. My father was a mid-level officer in the Indian Railways and we lived in various localities in Delhi.

At that time, it was considered somewhat infra-dig to vote-after all, one had to stand in line with the hoi pol-loi to cast a vote. The vote really did not matter anyway, as the Congress was predominant and would win regardless of whether we voted. Other parties, particularly the Jana Sangh, were gradually coming to the fore and, by the late 1950s, had begun to win municipal elections.

This was long before T N Seshan's stint as the Chief Election Commissioner. Political parties were so desperate to win votes that, at times, they hired cars to take voters to their polling booths. Party booth representatives kept a close watch on those on the voters' list who had voted and those who had not, and sent party members to try and persuade the nonvoters to come to the polling booth.

One such representative came to our house on Turkman Road in central Delhi and made an impassioned appeal to my father to "boat". My father legitimately asked why he should go boating. "For parliament," said the party member. My father pointed out that it was not possible to reach parliament by boat. The party member gave up on it as a lost cause.

My parents never voted in their lives. I preferred to enjoy my holiday rather than stand in line to cast my vote in an ill-kept primary school. I never voted in my home state Kerala until 1996, when I was posted to Delhi. I did not return to Kerala until I retired in 2011. In Delhi, I voted twicein 2008 for the Delhi legislative assembly, and in 2009 for parliament. I was Cabinet Secretary then and it would have looked awkward if I did not have the mandatory black mark on my finger. After returning to Kerala, I voted again in 2014, 2019, 2021, and 2024.