Making a call on democracy, desi style

In a reversal of the traditional year-end ritual, the UK is ringing out the new on impending Brexit and ringing in the retro by awarding heritage status to its iconic, and once ubiquitous, red telephone kiosks which were as much a distinguishing feature of the landscape as double-decker buses or the clock tower which houses the bell known as Big Ben. Bypassed by mobile technology, the red booth has been given the New Year gift of being listed as a “Grade II structure”, normally accorded to buildings and monuments worthy of preservation. Designed by architect Giles Gilbert Scott in 1924, the first of these booths was installed in Piccadilly Circus.

Taking a cue from London, Delhi might similarly honour a booth of another sort, which also merits distinction, being pivotal in the operation of the world’s most populous democracy: the polling booth. In democracy’s hall of fame, the Indian polling station deserves pride of place for its long and chequered history which has borne witness to all the rough and tumble of the electoral arena, from the full-contact sport called “booth capturing”, which gave new meaning to the term “battle of the ballot box”, to the spirited debate as to how tamper-proof or otherwise are electronic voting machines, or EVMs. When it comes to the exercising of franchise, the desi polling booth can legitimately claim to have shown the world ‘vote’s vote’.