02 December 2013, 09:45 AM IST
As campaigning comes to a close before Delhi steps out to vote, I made my own video of some of what is wrong, to a large extent, with Delhi. Just about 7 minutes of raw footage taken from my new gizmo, a dashcam, mounted on the windscreen of my small car.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft-GEVs_sAM
What you see is real life as you drive through one of the costliest stretches of real estate in South Delhi, sale prices varying from 12 lakhs to 20 lakhs per square metre or thereabouts. Entering Kotla Mubarakpur village from the DDA headquarter offices and INA Market approach side, bye-passing New Delhi South Extension, driving along the wall for the new Bara-Pullah sunken/elevated road, then going through the government residence called Sewa Nagar and finally driving through posh Defence Colony.
(This is also a "back-route" that helps you escape traffic jams on Ring Road between AIIMSc and Lajpat Nagar, by the way)
Kotla Mubarakpur village, is an amazing "urban village", also called "laal dora" (red line) after the colour used to demarcate them on city maps. The village has showrooms and outlets for almost every known brand in automobiles, electronics and consumer goods apart from a wide range of shops selling everything under the sun.
And this is the reality of how our mis-governance keeps it not clean.
Then we drive through Sewa Nagar, where live mid and senior level Government and Railway employees. Take a look at what happens there now. There is a new elevated road on one side, the "Barapullah Route", which has huge walls on its side so that you can not look down on this mess.
And then, towards the last few minutes, is the "posh" Defence Colony. I can't even try to describe the stink that we breathe on a regular basis there especially as we drive on the road near the central storm-water drain which is now a sewage outlet for South Delhi.
This is aspirational South Delhi. The Emperor of Japan and his contingent were being taken for a pleasant walk through Lodhi Gardens, just about a kilometre away, a few days after this clip was shot. Looks very pretty, at night, the area.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RbHUtl3qXs
So what has this got to do with elections?
Only this - we are voters and much sought after till voting day. After that, we become supplicants, paying back everything that the winners (and even the losers) woiuld have spent on their campaigns. That's how it has been for decades now, it just keeps on getting worse, though, as the squeeze on the middle-class increases and tightens from all sides.
The only option we have of voters to change that equation, is to vote for the newly introduced "None Of The Above" = NOTA.
Friends of mine tell me, why would people take the trouble, effort, time and money, to go vote NOTA? My answer is this - when the counting is done, each NOTA vote will be worth it's weight in loss of image and potential for the winner as well as opportunity lost for the losers.
And most importantly, a reasonable percentage of NOTA votes polled will give us, the voters, a better chance of getting the next step introduced - the "Right To Recall". There are various models for that.
For example, if the "NOTA" votes are equal to or more than the difference between the winning and 2nd best candidate, then what does that imply?
Likewise, if NOTA manages to score in the first 3 or 4, what does that mean?
All this, and more, and a debate on the subject, will only happen if more people take time out to vote NOTA.
Or, be prepared to remain supplicants for 5 years after voting day.
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