Gurdaspur Diary: Dinanagar MLA Aruna Choudhury draws first blood in poll time

When it comes to filing election related complaints, Dinanagar MLA Aruna Choudhury has drawn the first blood. Seeing that her rival and AAP halqa in-charge of Dinanagar, Shamsher Singh, always moved around with a posse of cops, she petitioned the Chief Election Officer. Two days later, three cops were suspended including the Munshi of the Police Lines. The guillotine fell on the Munshi, the two cops were posted in the Police Lines, even if on paper. This is neither the first time nor the last that senior officers have conveniently found a way to get out of the line of fire. The grapevine has it that more such complaints and counter-complaints are in the offing. Welcome to elections, 2024.

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Exercise right to vote, elect right candidate

In 2019, thousands of gullible voters got blinded by the bright lights of Bollywood. This is a belated, yet candid, admission by senior BJP leaders. The reference obviously is to how thousands of voters, riding high on the phenomenon of hero-worship, catapulted Sunny Deol to the Parliament. Fast forward to 2024! It seems the electorate has now learnt some important lessons from the Deol debacle. The time has come for the electorate to choose another parliamentarian. This time, with no celebrity in contention, people are all set to send a mature and politically polished man to the Lok Sabha. So far, we have been electing leaders who barring a few could not see beyond the immediate. Let us hope for the best. With the polls around the bend, it is almost certain that candidates, and their respective parties, will indulge in slander, as has been the case in previous polls. Disrobing opponents in public is their favourite pastime. These people should know: never blow off another’s candle for it will not make yours shine brighter. The only aim of politicians these days is to make their rivals feel small. Elections have become the most fertile ground where politicians ensure that past deeds, rather misdeeds, of their rivals are placed in public domain. The corollary: Why make efforts to trace your family tree? Get into politics and your opponents will trace it for you! It is high time the ECI draws a line on verbal slandering. On their part, people should come out and vote in strength. The last thing a vibrant democracy needs is a voter who is content to sit at home. Someone struggled for your right to vote, right? So use it. The whole point of democracy is to make sure everyone has his chance to elect the right candidate so that policies that benefit their communities can be implemented. Last but not the least, people should cast their vote and not vote for their caste. Only then can a vibrant democracy be ushered in. (Ravi Dhaliwal)