Of the people, by the people and for the people. This is the hallmark of democracy. While democracy may interchangeably be considered to mean freedom, it’s actually different. Democracy signifies freedom of choice, a right to choose who leads us, whose vision inspires us, whose ideas align with ours, and so on.
Our entire freedom movement was dedicated to establishing this democracy, where every citizen has an equal right to choose their leaders, irrespective of caste, class, religion or gender. This is possibly the most important of all our duties enshrined in our constitution.
Unfortunately, a substantial number of our citizens take our democracy for granted, not even bothering to cast our vote, which is the least one can do. This is nothing short of an insult to the sacrifice of our freedom fighters, who shed their blood so that we can enjoy the benefits of democracy, where we are ruled not by monarchs, but by leaders whom we choose, leaders who are a part of us, who reflect our vision and aspirations, leaders who work for us.
The strength of democracy lies in the participation of its citizens, the higher the participation, the stronger the democracy. Only when we vote can we hold our leaders accountable. It is our vote that keeps them in office, or throws them out. It is time we realise and utilise the power of our vote.
Alternatively, if we don’t vote, we don’t perform such a simple and basic duty, do we deserve any right that we so loudly claim? It is very easy to say that one vote doesn’t matter, or that our vote won’t make a difference. But look at it another way, would not violation of a single right of a single person matter? What if that one person whose right is violated is us? Then also, someone can say so what, The right of a few persons don’t matter because the rights of most people are being respected.
Hence, every citizen matters, every right of every citizen matters and every vote of every citizen matters. So let’s all cast our vote and say “WE MATTER, OUR DEMOCRACY MATTERS”.
Only then will every politician take us seriously and work towards fulfilling our aspirations and realise that he/she is accountable to each of us.
