What NOTA Means & Why You Need To Know About It This Election
This will help you make a better decision when you're voting.
NOTA or ¡®none of the above¡¯ gives the options to the voters of not voting for any of the candidates contesting the elections. Hence, you can opt to tell your leaders that you don¡¯t consider any of the contestants to be appropriate enough to be your representative. Many even credit the introduction of NOTA as the maturing of a democracy. In India, the option of NOTA came into being after the Supreme Court passed a judgement in response to a writ petition filed by the People's Union for Civil Liberties.
However, the question is how effective has it been for India?
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Even when NOTA came to be, there was ample debate around its existence. There were people who felt like our democracy really needed NOTA as it marks the maturity of India¡¯s democracy. It gives the right to the people to dissent against their leaders. Moreover, many also argued that it could be beneficial for leaders to measure their own work, policies and the ways in which they have affected the people. The leaders could then work towards formulating better policies for their people which would also add to the checks and balances system that India¡¯s government is often applauded for.
However, another group of people were of the view that giving a vote to NOTA is equivalent to wasting a vote. Since it doesn¡¯t lead to any fruitful election and you don¡¯t vote for any contestant, it is considered to be a mere symbol of your discontent with the government without helping you as a voter to be able to address that discontent. Hence, many people consider NOTA to be as good as not going for voting at all.
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The current system in India is that if NOTA has the highest number of votes in an election, then the candidate with the second highest number of votes will be elected. Hence, the people of the view that voting NOTA is equal to not voting at all since it¡¯s just a symbolic dissent might be true in terms of the Indian context.
In spite of these arguments, however, India¡¯s public has shown faith in NOTA. For example, during the Karnataka Assembly Elections of 2018, NOTA won more votes than parties with a presence at the national-level such as CPI(M) and BSP!
NOTA, for India, is still a fairly new development. Moreover, India is a young nation as well. We¡¯re all growing up with our nation and learning to cast our votes carefully. Hence, it is still to be seen the kind of effect NOTA will have on the democracy of India. However, it can¡¯t be denied that till NOTA is given more electoral validity, it won¡¯t be able to give the sort of outcome that is intended out of it.
