How would they vote?

One of my friends was concerned, with the General Elections looming and IPL coinciding, that too in a different continent. How would his favorite Indian cricketers vote?

He being the most optimistic person I know (perhaps more optimistic than Munaf Patel – The fielder, while attempting a sliding stop) he was of the opinion that they would take a mid tournament break, chart a plane and comeback to vote. The most optimistic statement of his was that the cricketers are law abiding, constitution loving Indian citizens.

There were also a couple of others who were of the opinion that the Indian cricket team should be equated to the Indian armed forces in terms of their electoral rights, they should be allowed a postal vote. While I appreciate the love and concern we have for our cricketers rights, there are a couple of things we need to remember.

Indian army is not registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act. As many of us might know, the President of India is supposed to be the Supreme commander of the Indian armed forces (not Sharad Pawar or a Lalit Modi, yet !!).

Indian armed forces truly represent the Indian citizens, it is a governmental body. BCCI is a private society who by their own admission to courts say that they don’t represent India. So why does one give BCCI (a private society) the same privilege the Indian armed forces get.

The average Indian cricketer is so well off these days that he need not necessarily vote to get his MP or ministers, he can buy one whenever he wants.

And even otherwise, I wouldn’t want to believe that anyone sitting abroad, especially the Indian cricketers (working or at leisure) would want to spend money on air tickets and time to come and vote. This is, unless you are Aamir Khan and that too because someone paid you (in cash or kind) to act in an advertisement and made you say that you would comeback (from your vacation) to vote. Now you have to because you have announced your intent in public and you would get sufficient PR if and when you comeback to vote.

Read more...

Return