Kamal Ghorui
On the Beckettian wait of over 27 lakh Bengalis
The plight of 27 lakh+ Bengalis, desperately hoping to see their names included in the voter list ahead of polling on April 23 and 29, is similar to what’s dramatised in Samuel Beckett’s iconic Waiting for Godot.
There, the circular path of assurance, despair and expectation, finally turns out to be futile, as Godot never surfaces.
Awaiting a hearing at the 19 appellate tribunals, the SIR-stung citizens face a fate eerily like Vladimir and Estragon’s. In their wildest nightmares, they would have never thought that in the month of April, notorious for vexing crores of students awaiting board results, they would have to reappear for exams they have already passed with flying colours.
For, their votes have elected several govts since 2002. Many had their names on rolls even before 2002.
While the match referee has a leading role in this Waiting for Godot redux, there are other major characters in Bengal’s theatre of the absurd.
Appellate tribunals were notified by EC on March 20. But it’s not like ordering your cola on a 10-minute delivery app. One has to find office space, set up infra, stick to the rules! So, it was only on April 13, 24 days after they came into existence, that the tribunals started work.
SC has insisted on SIR compliance, while assuring those whose fate could not be decided this time, that genuine voters cannot be deleted forever.
Never mind if they miss the bus this time, or if it results in a different electoral outcome on May 4. A long wait is the essence of politics, be it delivery of promises, or fulfilling dreams.
So what, if you don’t find your name on the list this time. Democracy’s worth the wait. Don’t you wait for a commercial break to end, when Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is just a sixer away from winning a match? Don’t you wait forever for the insurance company to pay your bills, after the doctor has cleared your hospital discharge?
In any case, SC gave another assurance to disenfranchised voters on April 16: those cleared by tribunals till two days before polling dates can vote.
So what, if the tribunals had cleared just 5 out of 27 lakh+ names till then.
Just treat these polls like democracy’s end-of-season clearance sale.
Won’t you wait till Dec to wear the woollens that you bought dirt cheap in Feb?
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