The time is upon us yet again, folks!

It’s that time of the five-year-period when nuances cease to exist, sanity hides under the stairs, and ridiculousness becomes the social norm. It’s that wonderful time when you get to see old friends who come over without warning for the first time in 5 years; when “your problem becomes our problem”- yes, it’s election season, benches!

I’ve grown up around people who are done voting even before I properly wake up- there is no question as to whether you go to vote or not. So I’ve never entertained the notion of not voting. In fact, I love elections so much, that enrolling my name is the single most fulfilling thing I have ever done. But the world is diverse and divisive, and people with a lot of different opinions exist. And when I asked around a lot, and I mean a lot of people were not interested in voting. I was baffled and my mind refused to comprehend that people can be not interested in voting. But being the open-minded person that I am, I asked them, but why? Why refuse to participate in something so worthwhile, something so irrefutably important? And the answers I got will not surprise you. They were the usual, run-of-the-mill, generic answers that did not convince me in any way whatsoever. Here are the top 3 responses I got:

3) Long lines and heat.

2) Nothing ever really changes.

And my personal favourite,

1) Politics does not interest me.

So here’s the comprehensive set of reasons why your reasons are not reasonable.

Long lines and heat

Really? Like, seriously? That is not even-, why would that be-, it does not-, I mean-, yeah. Like, really?

The next, more legitimate reason is :

Nothing Changes.

Counterpoint: everything is changing. Excruciatingly slowly, but yes. Before you jump down my throat yelling, Sarada, politics bad, politicians badder, all corrupt, no one good, everyone same, you know nothing, Jon Snow; I know it feels we are trapped in a Groundhog’s Day-esque situation, but instead of waking up in a nice hotel room repeatedly, we wake up in a haunted house that is burning down with all its haunting things still intact and working. Trust me, I feel you. But things are changing. We are growing, as a democracy, as a country. How we perceive equality, the nuances of freedom, it’s all changing. And this change will reflect in our nomination list. And before you dismiss my optimism (to be read as universal truth) as Sarada hasn’t slept and is living off black tea, yet again; ask yourself who were the nominees from your constituency? Not just the major party ones, but others? How many candidates in total were contesting? What were their symbols? What was their platform? The answers might delight you.

Change might have already knocked on your door. You might have had a class that day, maybe change’s flyer is in the middle of a newspaper stack. Change is there. And at the risk of sounding like an 80-year-old Luddite, sitting on your asses and surfing through Netflix on election day, isn’t going to help one bit.

If your concern is not this either but rather,

Politics Does Not Interest Me

In a monarchy or dictatorship, politics is something that happens in the corridors of commanders, away from the people it actually concerns. Any other form of government takes the power to make our own decisions and choices away from us. Because politics is not just who you send to the parliament. In this world, personal is political. A woman deciding whether or not she wants a child is as path-breaking a political statement as a peace accord between countries (in its own different way, obviously). (And if you don’t believe me, just take the case of Ireland and its abortion laws).Democracy is the only form of government that trusts and demands us to care about our own politics. The only reason we get to shirt-talk our democracy and politics is because there are thousands fighting every day, everywhere, so that not just their’s, but everyone’s personal, everyone’s politics is in our own hands. You get to renounce politics because there are people who are still fighting, starving, losing their jobs, sacrificing their freedom and leisure so that you can complain about the politics of this country. It is a privilege to be able to not care about your country’s future, not a right.

Also READ : Why Repealing 377 is Just a Baby Step…

Next thing you might say is that, yes, personal is political but this politics is not my personal. To that I say, dissenting against the current politics is the core of democracy and politics. It not only asks you to dissent, but democracy itself is stronger because of this. And India finally gave us the right to reject this politics with NOTA. Not interested to vote because you hate the power grabbing politicians of your constituency? NOTA. Don’t care for the kind of campaign in your constituency? NOTA. Too lazy to actually care about this election? NOTAn excuse. Don’t let a country down because you take its democracy for granted.

Politics is hard to understand. The more you understand, the more bizarre it becomes. But elections keep that insanity in check. And as much big-picture it seems, elections have a direct effect on you, your surroundings and everyone around you. Every decision you make, every joke you make is inadvertently shaped by the politics around you. Every movie you see, every actor you watch is directly impacted by it (I mean, going by the number of political movies, election season is as good as any other festival season). There are people who are still fighting disenfranchisement (when you are denied the right to vote), authoritarian regimes, political violence right here in our country itself. So maybe the person you send to parliament could be the person to stop a bad bill. One of the main reasons attributed to Trump’s presidency is that no one went out to vote and one of the main reasons attributed to the rising of young, diverse, focused politicians is active voting.

And if you are wondering how your one vote could matter; A R Krishnamurthy lost the Santhemarahalli seat in the 2004 assembly elections to Dhruvanarayanan for ONE vote (40751 and 40752). And had his driver voted, it would’ve been a different ballgame.