Unbelievably, the Gujarat government has made voting compulsory, though only for the local civic body elections as of now: "All registered voters in Gujarat will be required to vote and those absent will be summoned by the local election officer and asked to submit a valid reason with proof within a month."

This is going to result in a Guinness Record scale of dog-ate-my-homework stories. And people trying their best to not get trapped into the electoral roll. Hmm..do I smell corruption? The silver lining is that there will be a "None of the Above" option in the candidates list.

But seriously, this is a gross violation of one's freedom. It's one thing to like voting or exhort others to do so, but how does enforcing that at gun point help?

I'd heard of Australia as one country with compulsory voting and used to wonder whey they haven't voted that out. The relevant Wikipedia page has a long list of other not-too-inspiring examples: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Fiji, Liechtenstein, Nauru, Peru, Singapore, Switzerland, Turkey and Uruguay.

It's possible this is some silly gimmick or trick by the incumbent government in Gujarat to gain mileage. But what chutzpah!

Tags: gujarat, india, politics