Manu Joseph: Why one may choose not to vote—and why this choice needn’t be a moral failure

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. One way or another, the central message of all annoying people is ‘why can’t you be like me?’ I cannot think of a more foolish use of human speech. Often this message is conveyed as an insult to those who do not perform some sacred thing that is dear to the pontificator.

It is with that same pious face that some people insult those who don’t vote. Every now and then, I hear radio jockeys, actors, comedians and others give a lecture on why everyone should go and vote. There used to be a man in South Mumbai who would actually spend money to scream on hoardings that the very meaning of ‘idiot’ is a person who didn’t vote.

This learning was apparently drawn from ancient Greece, a frequently cited source of nonsense. An ‘idiot’ though did mean a person who did not participate in public life, which in my lexicon would mean an idiot back then was a wise philosopher. I don’t vote; I have never voted.

Until 20 years ago, it was no big deal. A big section of the urban middle-class was like me. As leaders of the freedom movement receded, Indian politics ceased to be a reformative movement led by an idealistic upper class and instead became something dominated by practical people.

In fact, Indian politics appeared to be the revenge of the poor. As a result, outside Kerala and Bengal, the upper classes seemed to lose interest in voting. And a dim notion came to be that India was so backward because its finest didn’t vote.

Now, going by turnout data, they have returned to voting. They even seem to share some of the sentiments of average voters. Voting is now so popular that there was a lot of middle-class chatter about the recent municipal elections in Mumbai.