Sir,

Apropos the letter ‘Do Vote, but Vote intelligently’ by Bhamy V. Shenoy (SOM dated Apr.22), KBG is right that we all vote on party lines including the most educated and well-informed.

In an environment where money and muscle power matters most and politics has become the most lucrative vocation, the biggest challenge at present for the voters is, prevailing over the political parties to filter the ‘wrong’ candidates. A mechanism has to be found in the future by the voters to see that the parties field only ‘clean’, educated and preferably professionals as KBG rightly suggests. Half the battle would be won if we can achieve this.

Right now, it’s a catch-22 situation for the voters as there aren’t many ‘right’ candidates contesting and there is no opportunity for us to use our grey matter to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea!

Voters were looking for a new/alternate narrative and that’s how Aam Aadmi Party emerged and won 67 out of 70 seats in Delhi. It would have gone places by now but sadly lost the  steam after Yogendra Yadav, Prashanth Bhushan and others exited the party.

For the present, it would be a good idea if the prospective winners of this election at least make it a point to hold bi-annual town hall meetings in their Constituencies to listen to and address the problems of the voters. The voters should demand this and make them accountable.

– Mubasher Mirza, Bannimantap ‘C’ Layout, 23.4.2018

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