Mangaluru: Seventeen poets,one message—come to the polling booth. Stepping up efforts to ensure greater turnout at polling stations on May 12 for elections to the state assembly, the Dakshina Kannada Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation (
SVEEP) Committee on Thursday organized a multi-language
poets meet, where selected poets read out their compositions on elections. The committee had vetted 150 poems received beforehand, out of which 17 were presented.
If Aruna Nagaraja dwelt on ‘bhagyas’ with ‘Aa Bhagya, Ee Bhagya, Idhu Yentha Bhagyavayya,’ Prasanna recited ‘Naanu Matha Chalaisuthhene’. Vishwanath Kotekaru recited ‘Our right… Our Vote’. Durgarathna from Puttur exhorted millennium voters ‘Aavo Hum Mathdaan Karen’. Charles D’Souza wondered on ‘Tumcho Vote Konak’ while Narayan Rai Kukkuvalli dwelt on ‘Votuda Mahatwo’. Poet Shamsheer Budoli also dwelt on the theme of elections in the Beary language.
Inaugurating the poets meet, limerick poet
H Dundiraj, referring to newspaper headlines of key examinations hailing performance of girls over boys, exhorted first-time voters, especially boys, to take the lead in heading for their respective polling stations on May 12 in large numbers. Averring that poets can weave their words on any subject, Dundiraj said initiatives of the SVEEP committee to recognize the power of words to convey an important message is laudatory.
Observing that voters are ‘bella’ to politicians and Election Commission the ‘bevu’, who keep the aspirants under check by preventing election excesses, Dundiraj advised the voters not to fritter away the power of universal adult franchise. “The apathy among urban electorate is on the rise, and even one person’s apathy towards our democratic right to vote will have a cascading effect on who represents us in the state assembly and whether he/she will be the voice of voters,” he said.
Dr M Shantharam Shetty, an orthopedic surgeon, said people who passionately advocate the need for people to exercise their franchise, personally fail to do so, citing earlier prior commitments. “I have not missed voting in a single election in the past five-decades,” Dr Shantharam Shetty, said, adding the onus of ensuring greater voter turnout rests squarely on the shoulders of the younger aspirational generation who expect the governments to meet their aspirations.
QUOTE HANGER
I have been conducting elections for past 25-years and each election has been different from the other. The committee felt that poets could play a role to inspire voters, and hence this poets meet was conducted. We want every section of voters to turn out in larger numbers. The ECI has appreciated the use of poetry as a medium to create awareness among voters’ on the issue. M R Ravi, president, Dakshina Kannada SVEEP Committee.
