Lok Sabha Election 2019: Should I Be a First-Time Voter at 18?

I understand that I must no longer consider the election day as just another holiday but an important day to go out and exercise my vote.

(Illustration: Erum Gour/The Quint)

Am I excited about voting for the first time? I really don't know. Mixed feelings, perhaps. Or maybe indifference? I don't know anything about the system yet. It has all been theoretical, (that I) studied in school textbooks so far. In the past, I have seen my family go to vote with enthusiasm while I would stay in the house celebrating election day as a holiday.

I have also seen my elder sister, of late, all excited about finally receiving her voter ID card.

I received it (voter ID card) along with her, but strangely, it did not do much to me. She got it four years too late, but somehow, it gives me a sense that she is ready for it. She has a point of view regarding politics, and is already dreading the fact that she may not be in town for the D-day, and hence miss her chance, in what, according to her, is a big responsibility on her shoulders. It is interesting, though, that four years ago, she was as detached from the process as I am today. Getting a driving licence or a lot of other 'liberties' gave her a high then, as it gives me now.

I, like many of my batchmates, have led a sheltered life, and a large part of who I am today is because of the environment I have grown up in. I have been observing my family and friends, trying to discern good from bad and right from wrong, and imbibing values that I know will hold me in good stead all my life.

However, I am beginning to feel that my right and wrong may not be my neighbour's virtue and vice too. I daresay I am a little confused. I have friends who have an opinion on a lot of subjects, including politics. But I wonder if it is their own.

I understand that I must no longer consider the election day as just another holiday, but an important day to go out and exercise my vote. In the past year-and-a-half, I have participated in family discussions (mostly as a silent observer ), about my expectations from 'powers to be'.

I often feel overwhelmed by the load of views being thrown upon us in the guise of a debate. It unnerves me even more to see that everyone seems to have an opinion about everything, while I am still groping to understand things. When I sit in front of the TV listening to political debates, I am not inspired.

In school, debates were meant to express your own views while listening to others as well. Rarely is it the same on TV, where you 'debar' rather than debate. There are many campus debates, and a 'campus' is more often than not, a college campus and not a school campus. How then, is a student on the threshold of college, expected to vote with an understanding of the system? I do know that I need to read, discuss and understand with more clarity to be able to play a decisive role in carefully selecting the candidate and the party to lead us.

I want time to comprehend, assimilate, recognise all that I need to, before I take the plunge. We need to reach beyond our sheltered harbour, to explore and develop an understanding of our own. We need to be compelled to think for ourselves, based on the foundations we have grown up with.

I hear enough being said about first-time voters, and that the young population between 18 and 25 will decide which political party comes to power at the centre, which is why the question comes to my mind – Should I be a first-time voter at 18?

(All 'My Report' branded stories are submitted by citizen journalists to The Quint. ThoughThe Quint inquires into the claims/allegations from all parties before publishing, the report and the views expressed above are the citizen journalist's own. The Quint neither endorses, nor is responsible for the same.)