To Vote or Not to Vote!

Come election time & staff rooms of Delhi’s colleges are swarmed with familiar faces of teachers’ activists laden with cards introducing the candidates, many with identical names, and their ballot numbers, to aid the memory of the forgetful voters. The established groups owing allegiance to different political outfits also issue pamphlets, which state their positions on immediate as well as long term issues. These positions often become so predictable and repetitive over time that most teachers just accept the ‘declarations of intent’ as a matter of courtesy and leave them on side tables to serve as coasters for the endless cups of tea. Reading, in any case, is a taxing, tedious and tiresome activity & the curious ones find it easier to just shoot a question and let the sermonizing begin. As battles lines get blurred and the polling draws nearer, subtle attacks and even innuendos fill up spaces between the lines. Your vote may be sought on any plausible ground- from departmental appointments/irregularities, caste/gender-oppression/empowerment, neo-colonial policies & medieval mindsets- nothing is taboo. There are honourable mentions of ‘struggles’, which need to be carried on and the ‘academic reforms’, which are often destined to be still-born. Parties or groups other than yours dole out lacs while you have to manage on a shoe-string budget created by ‘help from well-meaning & like-minded friends’. Many ‘independent’ candidates sound look content with ‘any preference’ from strangers since it is the floating vote that can act as a spoiler. The more confident ones have the box near their names on the huge poster checked to indicate to which candidate your college has been allotted to but cross-voting does happen. Like the proverbial middle-class in national/civic elections, there are the apathetic voters too who just don’t show up despite reminders, phone calls & offers of transport/refreshments to tempt them. Things can dramatically change when a wage rise/cut is in the offing.

Where do the university elections differ from the rest? A group called ‘Forum for Democratic Struggle’ blamed its ideological ally for all the possible ills plaguing the system, expressed constraint that it cannot vote for a candidate not its own and in fact appealed ‘to teachers to cross out the form for the Executive Council elections’. After all, the right to vote does include the right not to cast one’s vote. The democratic struggle may have just taken a U-turn!