Today when I speak to people about their voting preferences, the usual answer I get is “Even though I like party ‘C’ I will vote for party ‘A’ to ensure that party ‘B’ stays out of power. When I ask them what if party ‘C’ or any other party you believe in comes to power, they immediately hit back saying “what if it doesn’t?”

No doubt we have the right to vote for whomever we wish, but why not vote for what we believe in? Why let fear decide for us?

Another common attitude that prevails is “I will vote for this party even though I know it will lose in this election.” What is wrong with us? Why can’t we believe ourselves? Why can’t we take a stand for ourselves?

Imagine if Gandhi would have thought, “What if all my struggles, the Satyagraha movement, the civil disobedience movement and numerous other struggles bear no fruit... and we are never able to defeat the British.” If this would have been the attitude of Gandhi do you think today we would be voting? Whether it was Gandhi, Bose, Tilak or Maulana Abul Kalam, their biggest weapon in the freedom struggle was their unwavering conviction, which ultimately freed us from the shackles of colonialism. Sadly, the ideals of our freedom struggle have been limited to our textbooks and magazines...we hardly apply them to our present situation and try to learn from it.

Whatever political party you decide to vote for, do it with conviction and hope. Do your part for our nation. Because we will not be questioned about what others did and what they didn’t. We will be responsible for what we did. Do your part. Go out and vote and believe in yourself and your power, only then will you be able to believe in our nation. Our election is dubbed as the world’s largest elections in terms of number of voters and we have the power to decide our future government and our future leaders. While our nation goes to polls, the most important thing that we require today is conviction and belief. The day we have this in our hearts and minds, every vote will make a difference. Otherwise even a thousand more elections and a billion more votes will make no difference to our lives.

- Governance Now