Get it right or regret

Election fever in the world's largest democracy. There is euphoria and hysteria in the air. Heated emotions and filthy language. And innumerable BREAKING NEWS. Who said what and who countered it is the tagline on most TV news channels.

Most of it is the norm these days. After all, 24 hrs news means every bit (or is it called sound bite) of political activity is tracked by cameras (may be mobile ones too, as shown in "What an Idea Sirji").

What is new this election season is the use of social media. Hordes of staunch supporters, or you can say warring rivals, of BJP and AAP flooding the Facebook News Feed with arguments For and Against. And news material posted left right and center. Mostly unverified. Or simply created by the party loyalists to feed the hunger of the supporters who are in dire need of material proof to win a brownie point. That too with a guy who you have added as "Friend" in FB. It shows the amount of political interest in the middle class Indian youth. May be this was always there. Just that I get to see it on FB. Earlier it used to be discussions at the Arts Club or Sports Club or simply at the nukkad.

Another interesting phenomenon is the amount of advertisements, many of them creative and innovative. Gone are the days when simply putting many pamphlets or posters, painting the walls with names of the candidates and symbols of the parties. Now we have advertisements on TV almost as long as the "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara" kind stuff.

Gone are the days when you got to listen to loudspeakers blaring at most junctions playing film songs in parody. Glorifying the party leaders and vilifying the opponents. Now we have them on the radio. Private FM channels are making good amount of money.

And of course, the initiatives taken by the Election Commission to get more people out there to vote. Statistics shows that it has worked so far. Voter turnout has increased by double digits in one-third of the constituencies that has gone into vote already.

This week we have elections in Bangalore. Unfortunately for me, my name is not yet there in the voter list. So it is going to be a holiday. For the rest of you

Go out. Beat the heat.
Exercise your right.
Vote right.

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