Poet goes to vote, inks protest instead

Every election day, Shailaja Ravi, Orissa's eminent poet, is one of the first to head for a polling station. But instead of standing in a queue, he asks the election official for a register. Ravi opens it and repeats what he's done for the past 45 years - giving his reason for not voting.

Ravi, 66, who considers himself a Gandhian, is not scared of a protest. He's turned down the prestigious Orissa Sahitya Academy award, an honour that is highly regarded by writers and ports in his state. And even though he's never voted once in the past 45 years, Ravi is considered a serious voter in Cuttack and in the state where his words carry a lot of weight.

 "As voting is a fundamental right, I have never forgotten the path to a booth to exercise my right. But each time, I have rejected the candidates and the parties," he says, adding that a refusal to vote shouldn't be considered a negative vote.

 "There is difference between a negative and a positive vote. If one does not get his choice of candidates and votes for someone else, it is a negative vote. If one rejects all candidates and makes known his feelings, it should be considered a positive vote," he said.

Any voter can refuse to cast his/her vote as per the Election Commission guidelines, said additional chief electoral officer of the state, Bhabagrahi Mohapatra. But the voter has to ask for the register to lodge his protest.

"But the process reveals one's identity," complains Ravi, adding that each EVM machine should carry a button where a voter can indicate that he does not like any of the candidates.

On being asked whether his vote would make a difference, Ravi alludes to Gandhji's Salt Satyagraha and how it transformed a nation. "When he started his freedom movement by urging people to participate in the salt satyagraha, nobody had thought it would change India's fate. "I have been so influenced by that event, that I have written a poem on it," he said.

Asked whether he would ever vote, Ravi said he would, only if he ever meets a politician who puts service to country above serve to self. "Now, politics has turned out to be the first refuge of scoundrels and I wouldn't like to promote somebody who's sold himself to an industrial house," the poet said.

To teach politicians a lesson, Ravi talks about a formula practiced in Greece about 100 years ago. "In Greece, people who won elections and failed to perform were banished for at least 10 years. If we start doing that to our leaders, they would quickly start mending their ways."