Being a voter !!

The celebration of democracy has begun with the formal announcement of elections by the Election Commission of India and the contesting parties are all geared up to move on to the battlefields but are we, "the voters" prepared !!!!

Me, being the first time voter ( really ashamed to say that having wasted one opportunity) is very excited to be a part of the process which over the last 6 decades has ensured the perpetuity of our parliamentary democracy system but am I ready to take the responsibility as a voter for the leadership which India will have post elections. Are we as voters not equally responsible for the mess into which our country is in today ? Should we not be held accountable for choosing such leaders over and over again who publish their manifestos as a mere formality? Are we not responsible if our country is day by day loosing its foothold in the international arena and is now far behind its peers such as China and Brazil ? We blame it on leaders but we forget that they have been chosen by us. We didn't make intelligent choice. We didn't research enough. We were motivated by our self interests. We thought just about our caste, our community, our religion, our region but not our country. How can then our leader be different.?

So be it Rahul Gandhi or Narendra Modi or Arvind Kejriwal or for that matter anyone else, remember the next PM will be of our making. We cannot afford to take our right to vote (which is in itself a blessing) casually and therefore we need to prepare. Reading manifestos, interacting with people, knowing the candidates thoroughly i.e. their history, their ideology, their policy plans etc.., there is so much which needs to be done and the clock is ticking.

I am preparing as I know that this is as much a test for me as for the candidates or for electioneering machinery. Are you ?