Local body elections (chennai as narrated by auto drivers)
More on this: another autorickshaw driver took so much trouble to explain to me what he had seen and experienced that i cannot but add it here:
Scene of one of the northern pheripheral chennai city polling booths - a series of Sumo's come to a halt and a state minister elected from this locality gets down along with men clad in all whites and armed with clubs and daggers. They march down to the election booth, 2 policemen who tried to resist them are knocked down, the third had a sharp blade of a dagger held at his neck, so does the officer in-charge of the polling booth. The public waiting to cast their vote are told by the minister to go home and their votes will be taken care of, none argue, they are happy to level the place with their life intact. The men in white, gather every ballot paper in the booth, vote for their candidate and stuff it into the ballot box. Once done, the minister orders the polling booth close down saying that the voting is over for them and leaves. About 20 policemen including an SI are witness to this happening, not to talk of all the passers-by and the autorickshaw driver who witnessed this.
After finishing this narration, the driver went on to give his comment, "what does it matter to the minister with the local body elections, his position is not in any way affected, why should he do this. it is said that he repeated this with his band of goondas in one more booth that day, this is the first time such terror is being brought to play in these elections, i have lived in this area all my life and never seen anything like this"...
Heavy travelling last few days due to personal reasons across the Chennai city meant i missed all the news on the local body elections tamasha. But, taxi drivers and auto drivers gave me their version of the electioneering, here goes their version:
Auto driver - central chennai. "this election was like watching in a movie...there were men with sickles and sticks all over the booth, they just took over and voted. It was movie like...only I couldn't vote at all, people were scared to go the booth after watching all this"
Taxi driver - ayanavaram, "my vote was cast by someone else, when i went i found that someone had already cast in my name...never seen so many armed goondas so blatantly hang around the election booth, they are scaring people off...i think this is the ruling party, they want to win at any cost"
Auto - driver, central chennai, "it is the same thing...they did it when they were in rule, now, these people are doing it as they are in rule...only people change, the methods don't"
Another ambitious auto driver in northern suburbs, "You know i was contemplating contesting for this elections. Maybe I should have, they are all walking around with big money and I would have been offered money to withdraw I am sure".
But, the last word is the pookaramma who narrated what happens, "one party gave Rs.200/- per vote for our family, we have 4 votes. anyway we only vote this party, they also gave 2 sarees. But, another party (the arch rival dravidian party) approached my mother-in-law (one of the 4 voters in the family) and paid her alone Rs. 250/- and gave her one sari. They knew better not to approach us, we will any way not vote them. We get sari and some money, good".
Long live Indian Democracy!
Scene of one of the northern pheripheral chennai city polling booths - a series of Sumo's come to a halt and a state minister elected from this locality gets down along with men clad in all whites and armed with clubs and daggers. They march down to the election booth, 2 policemen who tried to resist them are knocked down, the third had a sharp blade of a dagger held at his neck, so does the officer in-charge of the polling booth. The public waiting to cast their vote are told by the minister to go home and their votes will be taken care of, none argue, they are happy to level the place with their life intact. The men in white, gather every ballot paper in the booth, vote for their candidate and stuff it into the ballot box. Once done, the minister orders the polling booth close down saying that the voting is over for them and leaves. About 20 policemen including an SI are witness to this happening, not to talk of all the passers-by and the autorickshaw driver who witnessed this.
After finishing this narration, the driver went on to give his comment, "what does it matter to the minister with the local body elections, his position is not in any way affected, why should he do this. it is said that he repeated this with his band of goondas in one more booth that day, this is the first time such terror is being brought to play in these elections, i have lived in this area all my life and never seen anything like this"...
Heavy travelling last few days due to personal reasons across the Chennai city meant i missed all the news on the local body elections tamasha. But, taxi drivers and auto drivers gave me their version of the electioneering, here goes their version:
Auto driver - central chennai. "this election was like watching in a movie...there were men with sickles and sticks all over the booth, they just took over and voted. It was movie like...only I couldn't vote at all, people were scared to go the booth after watching all this"
Taxi driver - ayanavaram, "my vote was cast by someone else, when i went i found that someone had already cast in my name...never seen so many armed goondas so blatantly hang around the election booth, they are scaring people off...i think this is the ruling party, they want to win at any cost"
Auto - driver, central chennai, "it is the same thing...they did it when they were in rule, now, these people are doing it as they are in rule...only people change, the methods don't"
Another ambitious auto driver in northern suburbs, "You know i was contemplating contesting for this elections. Maybe I should have, they are all walking around with big money and I would have been offered money to withdraw I am sure".
But, the last word is the pookaramma who narrated what happens, "one party gave Rs.200/- per vote for our family, we have 4 votes. anyway we only vote this party, they also gave 2 sarees. But, another party (the arch rival dravidian party) approached my mother-in-law (one of the 4 voters in the family) and paid her alone Rs. 250/- and gave her one sari. They knew better not to approach us, we will any way not vote them. We get sari and some money, good".
Long live Indian Democracy!
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