I thought the day had finally arrived when I could raise my middle finger with an 'Up Yours' gesture and feel proud about the mark on my hand. All these years the indelible mark on Election day was usually dabbed on the pointer finger but this year it got a move up. I wonder if it was schemed by an official with a wicked sense of humour! But after telling almost every single person I know in this city to cast their vote, imagine my horror when I realised that my name was struck off the list. I thought it had something to do with my lack of initiative to equip myself with a voter ID card; I had voted without a voter ID during the assembly elections in 2006 and every election before that; so I really thought it would not be a deterrent. But in my polling booth in South Chennai and a lot of booths across the city I heard of people with voter IDs who discovered their names off the list. There have been instances in the past of voters names disappearing from voter lists but I doubt it has happened on the scale of the current election. The issue fortunately made National News thanks to Kamal hassan's name being struck off the list and he put the names that disappeared from the lists at 10%. That is an alarmingly high percentage even for a guesstimate. All through the day I kept receiving calls from friends and acquaintances about going to their polling booths and finding their names missing. Its rather disappointing that in an election where real issues have been pushed to the background and urban voter turnout numbers (Especially in cities like Mumbai) have been abysmal, that voters who have braved inertia and heat don't get to cast their vote. I find it difficult to believe that this is merely a clerical error and also hope the Election Commission that has successfully conducted one of the most difficult exercises in democracy anywhere in the world ensures that such omissions never happen again. After every election I could not wait for the mark to disappear from my finger; however I will miss it this year!
