My first vote!

No matter what holidays the State Government declares some of us less fortunate ones have to work even on the day when the rest of the city is enjoying a day off in order to do their part during the elections. This is why working for a CA firm is not fun... Just to clarify on my boss’s part it’s not his fault either. Back to blaming the Central Government-quarterly returns, the corporate clients who remember to file their returns only on the last date and while we're still playing the blame game, how can I miss out on the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India for poor passing percentages such that every article in my firm is on study leave, reappearing for the papers, which seriously brings down the number of people actually working in my firm. Besides being a senior you can have no escape. And so there I was destined to go back to work once I’m done with casting my vote and go home only once the work is done.

I reached my polling centre at around 11am and was surprised to see the queue extending beyond my expectations. If I wanted to enjoy the day off by leaving early, getting in the queue wasn't going to help. Besides I don't even live in the ward I was voting for. God alone knows who deserves to be voted for. Which most of the times is neither.

Thus, I put my evil mind to work. I remembered the Article 49-O of the Constitution of India doing the usual rounds of forwarded emails. For those who have forgotten about it, this Article (and not Section) gives one the right to vote for neither of the persons on the list of candidates. I had a feeling this was going to be my window of escape. Little did Mr. Ambedkar know that years after he drafted the Constitution there'll be one civilian would use it to wrap up her right to vote (more like a duty towards the country now-a-days) all the time justifying herself since she didn't know anything about any of the candidates, it would be only fair that she vote for none of them. So let’s see if they'd let me jump the queue and be done quickly.

What followed was surprising. I approached the Polling Booth Assistant’s desk. Told him about my intentions. The man was all confused. The 1st thing he enquires about if I was a freaking journalist. When I said no he thought to himself I must be just trying to hide my identity. He asked for some ID. The one day I decide to take some “panga” I forget to carry any ID except for my railway pass! No Voter ID issued but thankfully my name was on the list of people registered to vote. Never had he heard of this Article 49-O nor had he ever heard of anyone visiting the poll booth to vote for nobody… “Why come down here if you don’t want to vote is what they kept asking?” That’s when I realised that none of the people responsible for the arrangements had any idea what the law says. Nothing different from the ignorant people standing there to vote and I particularly felt bad for the elderly. Having no intensions of being part of the mess I might be about to create he conveniently directed me to the Zonal Polling Officer.

I expected to meet an old chap like any other government official but to my surprise this guy looked not much older than me. To get an edge I tried to speak in a bit of a legal lingo that I wanted to exercise the rights granted to me under the Article 49-O of the Constitution of India. He didn’t know what the Article provides so I explained in simple words. At least he understood I wasn’t here to play a prank. I got to say the guy didn’t try to make it any harder for me. He simply took me to the right hall, told the guys there what special procedure to follow in my case in very clear terms. I was impressed. I tried to get back in the queue to which he said no need just get in between. Oh! Was I loving this special treatment! And mission accomplished. Didn’t even have to waste time standing in the long queue.

But as I mentioned before, all the rest of the officials had no clue what the Article 49-O says and they think even though a person who can actually quote the Article number being an ordinary citizen could not know more about elections than they do. This is exactly why I had done my homework before entering the polling booth. So in spite of clear instructions they had to be retold what they were supposed to do by the journalist in disguise of an ordinary citizen. Someone who comes to vote but doesn’t vote for any one, while the rest of the people in the queue just keep on staring at who the hell is this girl cutting in between the queue while they have to keep waiting in line. At least I got mine. By the way all this took nothing more than 5 minutes. And I even got to call myself a responsible citizen :P All in all quite an experience for a first timer.