Wastage of Vote

The meaning of democracy is, those whoever is supported by the majority would rule everyone.

The meaning of vote is, you like somebody, and you feel, if that person is going to govern you, you would feel happy.

If you are voting for someone, it means, you would feel happy for everything that he/she would do after getting power. Once the person whom you voted wins, you will not have any right to criticize him/her for five years. If that person has done anything wrong, you have to criticize yourself for electing that person. It is your responsibility to take all the precaution to vote for the best candidate next time who will fix all the mistakes that this person has done.

If you are voting for someone, and you are criticizing the same person, it means you are a biggest hypocrite.

If you are not voting for anyone, it means, you don't care about anything. So, you don't have right to criticize anyone for anything.

Many people severely underestimate the power of single vote. There are plenty of instances, where government brings few GOs just before the election, just to get thousand votes. Many political parties worry about other parties which splits their hundred votes. Even if one does not win in the election, but, by the votes they can get, they can bring the change in the system.

Let's suppose, there are two parties A, B. A and B are corrupted parties in different ways. But, educated people prefer A and uneducated people prefer B. Now, a new small party C joined. C proposes all the development and brings awareness in all the educated people. Now, few educated people started moving to party C. At this time, A fears about this, and starts talking about development instead of freebies that it was talking all the while. Eventhough, C is negligible from the statistical perspective in terms of vote share, but, it brought change in A. That is a win for the country. If nobody is going to care for C, and if A does not see any threat from C, then, A may not talk about development. C could bring fear in the existing political parties with that little vote share. But, that little vote share is very important. Without that, there is no change.

Finally, the speech of Dilip Sankarreddy (http://www.loksattavideos.com/2013/02/talk-by-dilip-sankarreddy-at-pecha.html) on what would he do, if he does not win in the elections should clarify, why that single vote is very important.

I want to make it very expensive for the other political parties to compete. They are right now eating lot of money and also splurging lot of money in campaigning. I want to make them splurge lot more than what they are splurging. I want them to feel the pinch. Even if I don't win, if they win, I will make it very hard for them to make money. So, they will be splurging lot more than what they are doing right now, and in addition to that, they will not be able to make more money than what they are doing right now. That means, the business of politics will not be so opportunistic any more. So, they will have to find out something else to become rich quickly.

Foreign Exchange Before 1991

For nearly four decades, foreign exchange was a taboo subject for most Indians. Governments guarded the foreign exchange reserve as if it was a treasure trove. The office of the chief controller of foreign exchange was a hallowed place and only the privileged few could gain admittance to the sanctum sanctorum. I remember travelling from Chennai to Mumbai to plead with the chief controller my case for an allowance to study abroad and, finally, I got the princely allowance of $7 per day for 10 months in a year!

Mercifully, FERA (Foreign Exchange Regulation Act) was buried finally on May 31, 2002.

Excerpt from "A View from the Outside" by P.Chidambaram.