SC's negative voting verdict, good or bad for democracy
Supreme Court's negative voting judgment comes as a reform in the electoral system of India. In democratic country like India voters should have the right to reject the leaders if they feel they are not worthy for the leadership role.
Earlier, a voter can express his contempt by dropping a blank vote, which was considered as invalid vote. Then when the EVM came into existence, people lost that option too, now they had to fill a form and that violated to vote in secrecy.
But now with "none of the above' option voters got the opportunity to express their contempt towards the existing politicians by pressing NOTA option in total secrecy.
India is suffering from dynastic politicians. The hereditary politics is playing a key role in the destruction of our country. Unless and until this is banned it is very difficult to see better India.
As a first initiative "negative voting "gives the people right to express their views in electing their leaders. In this way it gives freedom in choosing and rejecting their leadership. This makes the political parties to think before choosing a nominee and that would ultimately encourage the youth to participate in the electoral process.
Youth plays a major role in the development of the country. But due to the existing political system, some of them are afraid to join the politics because some hereditary politicians suppress those who challenge them. However, with NOTA option a ray of hope is built in the whole country. It gives opportunity to the youth to join electoral process and contest the elections.
NOTA if implemented in the upcoming elections, will give an opportunity to the people to express their views through secret ballot. Also this would encourage everyone to use his or her right to vote in a true democratic way.
NOTA will induce fear in the political parties about their candidates being rejected. This in turn will make them cautious while selecting the candidates to file their nomination papers.
If majority of the votes are "NOTA", then there will be re-election and then there could be a chance of electing the right leader.
If NOTA get implemented, it will certainly lead to the growth of our country, even though there may be few hiccups like; waste of resources, time wastage due to re-elections etc.
If we see the current political scenario, many leaders have a criminal background and the voters do not have a chance to reject them. They are left with the only option to elect one of them. This is huge disservice to the country and its people.
Now with the NOTA being introduced, voters have got the chance to reject the tainted leaders. This option will have a huge impact on the electoral process in the long run. This is a positive step for the development of our country.
-Divya Annepu
