Skip to main content

NOTA is not the Answer



Thousands of migrant labourers have been walking hundreds of kilometres to reach their homes from their workplaces for two months now in India. Outlook reports that the labourers have decided to vote NOTA [None of the Above] in the next election.

No, dear friends, NOTA is not a wise option. NOTA is nobody. Even if that option gets the maximum votes, you will still get some real vampire as your MLA or MP according to the rules. The one who gets the highest votes after NOTA will get to suck your blood.

You have another option, a wise and practical option. I will tell you in a moment.

Why did you become migrant labourers in the first place? Think for a moment. One of your vampires has now declared that the states should get his permission to hire workers hereafter. “If any state wants manpower, the state government will have to guarantee social security and insurance of the workers. Without our permission they will not be able to take our people…because of the way they were treated in some states,” he said. What a cruel joke!

I live in a state (Kerala) which provided all necessary things from food to accommodation to its migrant labourers who number to a whopping 35 lakh. This small state of Kerala treated its migrant labourers just like its own citizens. The state doesn’t even call them migrant labourers; ‘guest workers’ is the name given to them. And they are treated with that dignity too.

Yet some of them wanted to leave. Understandable. They had no work to do and they understandably wanted to be with their family members. But it consoles me as a Keralite to know that there was no mass exodus from my state. The state government arranged trains when the Centre nodded permission. Until then the “guest workers” were looked after with dignity. Just check which party was ruling the states from where migrants had to walk endless distances.

What did the Yogi who now wants states to seek his permission to hire workers do for these workers at any time? He had all the labourers who returned home sprayed with disinfectants. He treated you like shit. And now he pretends that he cares.

I asked the question ‘Why did you become migrant labourers in the first place?’ and then digressed. Let’s return to the question. Wouldn’t you have liked to work in your own places? Why would you travel such long distances, to alien lands where the language and culture are all different, if you could find means of livelihood in your own hometowns? Why were you deprived of the very right to earn your livelihood?


Ask yourselves, brethren. It is not enough to be called bhaiyo aur behno. Realise that. Realise that you were being exploited with sweet talks and religious sentiments. They gave you a gigantic statue when you asked for food. You were brainwashed to feel proud of some putative unity that the statue was to symbolise when you were actually being vivisected into mutually hating groups ready to slash each other’s throats. Hatred is one of the most powerful political tools and you were given that tool very cunningly. Subliminally.

You were promised more temples and statues for your gods. If they actually worked on their promises, you would have got work at least. You wouldn’t have been migrants at all. Instead they ended up tickling your nationalist ribs by renaming places which had Muslim names. What difference did it make to you when Allahabad became Prayagraj?

Your veins must have surged with nationalist pride. Did you feel a sense of conquest over the ossified Mughals when Mughal Sarai turned into Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Nagar? Writing down that new name on an application form will call for some effort if anything. Patriotism has its pertinent burdens too.

Hollow promises and contagious hatred are part of those burdens. What more did they give you? Disinfectant sprays on your return home?

Do not ever forget the blisters you gathered on your bare feet while walking hundreds of kilometres on scorching tarmac. Do not let them romanticise those blisters at least. Never forget: romantic sentiments, whether in the name of your nation or religion, are only political ploys of people who possess no imagination for creating a nation of healthy minds and bodies.

NOTA won’t get rid of those vampires. So what should you do?

You find leaders among yourselves. Contest the polls. Take charge of your destiny. Remember that a cry in the wilderness can set a whole avalanche in motion. We can have a much better country than this. Far better. Think of that.



Comments

  1. True...life needs to guide itself with sense and sensibility....so is the society...and, it should decide how to sail it and to where...else it continues to drift around...aimlessly, haplessly....eternally....very thought provoking article...my regards

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Lopa. But before moving on to eternity, we need to resolve the problems here and now.

      Delete
  2. Yogi dispalys a feudal mindset when he makes such a statement. It was like he is the slave master without whose permission they can't move! Sickening.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The people of UP regard him as kind of a superman. One should doubt the very air of UP.

      Delete
  3. Yes Sir, you are right in every word of this article. And Kerala has shown the right path to all the states of this country. The same kind of work culture and empathy towards the workmen is required throughout India.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wish there were more people like you in the country, Jitender ji.

      Delete
  4. We do need new faces who're considerate in politics. There's nothing but despair in the national system we have today. It's a relief to be in Kerala, though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The whole world has become a sham. Everything is a pretence now.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Country where humour died

Humour died a thousand deaths in India after May 2014. The reason – let me put it as someone put it on X.  The stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra called a politician some names like ‘traitor’ which made his audience laugh because they misunderstood it as a joke. Kunal Kamra has to explain the joke now in a court of justice. I hope his judge won’t be caught with crores of rupees of black money in his store room . India itself is the biggest joke now. Our courts of justice are huge jokes. Our universities are. Our temples, our textbooks, even our markets. Let alone our Parliament. I’m studying the Ramayana these days in detail because I’ve joined an A-to-Z blog challenge and my theme is Ramayana, as I wrote already in an earlier post . In order to understand the culture behind Ramayana, I even took the trouble to brush up my little knowledge of Sanskrit by attending a brief course. For proof, here’s part of a lesson in my handwriting.  The last day taught me some subhashit...

Lucifer and some reflections

Let me start with a disclaimer: this is not a review of the Malayalam movie, Lucifer . These are some thoughts that came to my mind as I watched the movie today. However, just to give an idea about the movie: it’s a good entertainer with an engaging plot, Bollywood style settings, superman type violence in which the hero decimates the villains with pomp and show, and a spicy dance that is neatly tucked into the terribly orgasmic climax of the plot. The theme is highly relevant and that is what engaged me more. The role of certain mafia gangs in political governance is a theme that deserves to be examined in a good movie. In the movie, the mafia-politician nexus is busted and, like in our great myths, virtue triumphs over vice. Such a triumph is an artistic requirement. Real life, however, follows the principle of entropy: chaos flourishes with vengeance. Lucifer is the real winner in real life. The title of the movie as well as a final dialogue from the eponymous hero sugg...

56-Inch Self-Image

The cover story of the latest issue of The Caravan [March 2025] is titled The Balakot Misdirection: How the Modi government drew political mileage out of military failure . The essay that runs to over 20 pages is a bold slap on the glowing cheek of India’s Prime Minister. The entire series of military actions taken by Narendra Modi against Pakistan, right from the surgical strike of 2016, turns out to be mere sham in this essay. War was used by all inefficient kings in the past in order to augment the patriotism of the citizens, particularly in times of trouble. For example, the Controller of the Exchequer taxed the citizens as much as he thought they could bear without violent protest and when he was wrong the King declared a war against a neighbouring country. Patriotism, nationalism, and religion – the best thing about these is that a king can use them all very effectively to control the citizens’ sentiments. Nowadays a lot of leaders emulate the ancient kings’ examples enviabl...

Abdullah’s Religion

O Abdulla Renowned Malayalam movie actor Mohanlal recently offered special prayers for Mammootty, another equally renowned actor of Kerala. The ritual was performed at Sabarimala temple, one of the supreme Hindu pilgrimage centres in Kerala. No one in Kerala found anything wrong in Mohanlal, a Hindu, praying for Mammootty, a Muslim, to a Hindu deity. Malayalis were concerned about Mammootty’s wellbeing and were relieved to know that the actor wasn’t suffering from anything as serious as it appeared. Except O Abdulla. Who is this Abdulla? I had never heard of him until he created an unsavoury controversy about a Hindu praying for a Muslim. This man’s Facebook profile describes him as: “Former Professor Islahiaya, Media Critic, Ex-Interpreter of Indian Ambassador, Founder Member MADHYAMAM.” He has 108K followers on FB. As I was reading Malayalam weekly this morning, I came to know that this Abdulla is a former member of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Kerala , a fundamentalist organisation. ...

Violence and Leaders

The latest issue of India Today magazine studies what it calls India’s Gross Domestic Behaviour (GDB). India is all poised to be an economic superpower. But what about its civic sense? Very poor, that’s what the study has found. Can GDP numbers and infrastructure projects alone determine a country’s development? Obviously, no. Will India be a really ‘developed’ country by 2030 although it may be $7-trillion economy by then? Again, no is the answer. India’s civic behaviour leaves a lot, lot to be desired. Ironically, the brand ambassador state of the country, Uttar Pradesh, is the worst on most parameters: civic behaviour, public safety, gender attitudes, and discrimination of various types. And UP is governed by a monk!  India Today Is there any correlation between the behaviour of a people and the values and principles displayed by their leaders? This is the question that arose in my mind as I read the India Today story. I put the question to ChatGPT. “Yes,” pat came the ...