Urging the youth to vote in high numbers, actor Rajkummar Rao on Thursday called urban apathy “demoralising” as the Election Commission of India appointed him its national icon. During an event in Delhi organised by the ECI, Rao reacted to comments from Election Commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel, who highlighted the issue of urban and youth apathy.
Rao, who played a polling officer in his 2017 film Newton, said that he knows how hard it is for the ECI and its officials to conduct elections in remote areas.
“…I strongly believe in the importance of voting. Because I’ve done a film called Newton, I know how hard it is for you (ECI) and your officers to conduct elections in such remote areas. I’ve seen it personally. During the process of filming Newton, I learned firsthand how hard all of you work for us to exercise our right to vote. The data that you’ve just shared with us is certainly very demoralising for all of us,” he said.
‘Go and vote’
The 39-year-old urged the youth and urban population to vote in record numbers in the coming elections.
“Today I’m not standing here to promote any film, to promote any series. I’m standing here to promote the most important aspect of a democracy, which is voting,” Rao said.
He went on to say that he too lives in a city and wants to request all that even as everyone is busy with work or education, they should not miss out on voting.
“Trust me when I say that the feeling that you get when you cast your vote is something you cannot experience anywhere else. The feeling of participating in a democracy, the feeling of participating in the forming of a government. That’s the best feeling and you don’t want to miss out on that. I want to urge and request all of you to please spread the message across that we have to make sure that we go and vote because it’s the biggest power you have in a democracy as the citizens of our country,” he said.
The actor added that there’s no point complaining later if one has not voted.
Atro’city’
Both Pandey and Goel, during their addresses, highlighted the issue of urban apathy and how the biggest cities in a state perform poorly when compared to average voter turnout.
Sharing some numbers from across India, Goel said that while the average voter turnout in Bihar was 57%, in Patna it was 45%. Against Karnataka’s average turnout of 68.8%, in Bengaluru, it was 53.7%. While Maharashtra has a voter turnout of 61.02%, cities including Kalyan (45%) and Pune (49%) performed poorly.
Similarly, Hyderabad (44%) performed poorly when compared to Telangana (62%).
Echoing Goel, Pandey added that while the urban areas of Uttar Pradesh have turnouts of just 40-50%, the rural areas have 80-90%. He further said that the second major issue before the ECI after urban apathy is youth apathy.
While concluding the event, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar urged the youth to actively participate in elections, saying: “Once you associate with the electioneering process, you will understand
the intrinsic power of democracy and value of your vote”.
He also appealed to influencers from all walks of life including the media to promote the importance of voting and in pushing up the voter turnout in forthcoming elections.
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