Disturbed by the manipulation of the right to vote by political parties, three retired All India Service officers decided to do something to counter it. And they chose to do it with a song. They thought of sending out a message to the citizens in a song, as it would have better reach.
The objective was to create awareness about democracy and the wise exercise of the democratic right to vote. This right is hijacked by political parties to suit their interests, through bribery and threats, to vote in someone’s favour.
To stop this rampant killing of the spirit of a vibrant democracy and create awareness among the citizens of the need to vote mindfully, the three retired civil servants came together for an election song. The song titled ‘Vote for future’ is conceived by G V Rao who is known for creating social awareness songs and is sung by popular singer Kailash Kher.
The three retired officers, Dr. Shailendra Joshi, Ajay Mishra and Vyankatesh Deshmukh contributed to the adding of the elements and in the translation. The song was originally written by award-winning lyricist Dr. Suddala Ashok Teja.
RIGHT TO VOTE SANS MANIPULATION
Talking to Indian Masterminds, Dr. Shailendra Joshi said, ‘Like body is nothing without soul, so is democracy without the right to vote. ‘Vote’ is the biggest weapon of a democratic system. We are privileged that in our country every single person above the age of 18 has this right. However, most of us do not take this seriously. Not only we miss giving the votes but some of us sell our votes for instant greed and the political parties misuse this.”
He emphasized that it is very important that citizens do not get manipulated by any candidate and cast their vote thinking about the future of the country. Only then, the true form of democracy will prevail.
MAKING OF THE SONG
Dr. Joshi, Mr. Mishra and Mr. Deshmukh has had close ties since the start of their careers, and they also share a good bond with G V Rao. Sharing the story behind the making of the song, Dr. Joshi said, “After the song on Karim Nagar by Mr. Rao got released, we thought of making a similar thing for social good. After a lot of discussions, we came together to make a song for creating awareness on the right to vote. We, three, gave our inputs in translating the song to Hindi and making of the video. It was fortunate that Kailash Kher agreed to sing the song without taking any charge.”
From brainstorming the ideas to getting the lyrics and the video done, the making of the song took around one and half months. It was released on 28 January this year to coincide with the recent celebration of the National Voters Day on 25 January.
VOTING RIGHTS NOT SECURE
Dr. Joshi also narrated some of his experiences as the District Election Officer for Machhli Pattanam parliamentary constituency. “During the 1996 elections, I was in charge of 1003 polling stations in my district. The elections were calm in 1000 stations, but repoll was announced for three. During the repolling day, I and two of my colleagues, a sub-collector and a joint collector, were manning the three booths. We faced challenges from a lot of anti-social elements and even witnessed stabbings. The required actions were taken but we realised the fact that voting rights are not secured in many regions of our country.”
HOPE SONG WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE
He specifically mentioned that no political parties are ever going to launch any aggressive campaign for awareness of voting rights. So, he and his team has made a small effort.
Since assembly elections in five states (UP, Uttarakhand, Goa, Manipur and Punjab) are due, the officer hopes that the song would play a small role in unbiased voting.
