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Bangalore techies who logged on to Twitter last week to rail against the awful traffic and crumbling infrastructure in the city met with some rare backlash. Other young urban professionals across the country – “allies” – turned their backs on their more-hip counterparts and called them out for sitting out the recently concluded Karnataka Assembly Elections. Even those who only came on Twitter to tweet about the great weather and the pink Tabebuia Rosea trees were dragged for the city’s dismal voting percentage of 54% – the lowest in the state. “If you didn’t vote, you don’t get to come on here and complain,” griped one twitter user, thinking he’s Elon Musk or something. “It’s sad when educated people don’t show up to carry out their civic duties,” lamented another user, undermining all the times Bangaloreans have consistently shown up for twitter outraging – a bigger, cooler civic responsibility than voting (meh.)
“It was not even a holiday, I took two calls from home”
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Before we ask the techies why they didn’t vote, let’s first ask ourselves what we did to get them to vote.
Let’s start with voter registration. Many in the IT corridor constituencies like Indiranagar, Koramangala and HSR Layout (or Outer Koramangala) claimed that they were not approached by the Election Commission ‘EC’ (whose job this is!) for voter registration or change of address. “A door-to-door registration drive is so obviously pointless. I didn’t see any such drives in cafes and pubs, where the people actually are!” this start-up growth hacker pointed out. Neither he nor his 6 meme-sharing colleagues recollect seeing any viral reel, paid post by local instagram micro-influencers or targeted online ads about voter enrolment. Honestly, this is an L for the EC.
Then there’s the issue of the politicians – big and small – ignoring these savvy professionals on their local campaigns. “My domestic help got sarees, a mixer grinder, even hard cash, dude. Where’s my free merch?” asked one marketing manager. Even if the area candidates could be forgiven for not knowing how important the tech workforce is, the Prime Minister should have known better. On his weekend roadshows in the city (which drew a huge pre-outrage on twitter for the traffic snarls it might cause) the PM ignored much of the IT corridor, stubbornly insisting on driving only on pothole-free roads. This slight to some of the highest tax-paying citizens of this country did not go unnoticed.
The final nail in the polling box, I suppose, was announcing Wednesday as polling day. Ew. Just the dullest day of the week. Rumour has it the EC avoided picking the weekend or weekend-adjacent days as the polling day to kill any long-weekend travel plans these unregistered voters might make. Sly, ECI. The city’s famed pubs and bars were also shut for nearly 4(00) days till the election results were out, killing the whole vibe of the city. Getting out to vote was truly the most exciting thing one could do that Wednesday. Except, the Uber drivers kept rejecting rides to the polling station, and that was that!
Next steps
“I don’t need anyone’s lecture on democracy. Every morning, even before I reach the office, I do an act of civil disobedience” this ORR office-goer says. He talks about the rousing moment each morning when everyone at the traffic signal honks in unison to force the traffic signal to go green at the exact moment it was going to as suggested by the countdown timer running alongside it. “It’s a small thing but it really shows me the power of the people when we all come together. It is the power of democracy!”
I think it is clear by now that THE SYSTEM failed its most well-intentioned citizens and PREVENTED them from exercising their vote. Shame on us all. We all also owe them an apology for dragging them like this before listening to their side of the story. Thankfully though, the General Elections are just a year away and the ECI has another chance at redemption.
“I might register to vote before that, I don’t know. Actually my US shift was delayed because of covid, so fingers crossed, this will be the year!”
Crossing all my fingers for you, sir. Go live the Indian Dream.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.
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