The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Madurai News : “Cash for votes, freebies detrimental to democracy”

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Sunday, Mar 27, 2011
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

“Cash for votes, freebies detrimental to democracy”

Staff Reporter

They have become part of the political discourse

— Photo: K. Ganesan.

AWARENESS:Members of the Tamil Nadu Sarvodya Mandal and Gandhian Institutions campaigning against money for vote in the city on Saturday.

MADURAI: In Tamil Nadu “cash for votes” and “freebies” have become part of the political discourse and now a situation has emerged that no political party in the State could fight the elections without banking on them, according to organisers of Ahimsa Election Campaign Yatra.

Addressing a meeting at Gandhi Museum here on Saturday, they said that the yatra, organised by Tamil Nadu Sarvodya Mandal and fellow Gandhian institutions, was an effort to create an awareness among both the voters and candidates of their respective duties to strengthen democracy.

V. Vivekanandan, vice-president, TNSM, said that giving freebies would seriously affect the economy in the long run and would not only spoil the way politics was being practised in the current generation but also affect the future generation.

Dignity is lost

Veteran freedom fighter Mayandi Bharathi said that once voters accepted cash for votes, the very next moment they lost their dignity and sovereignty.

He also asked the Gandhians to raise questions to the candidates on how much effort would he/she take to bring in total prohibition and save the lives of millions of families.

K.M. Natarajan, president, TNSM, said that everybody should compulsorily vote and made a request to all the candidates to read Gandhi's “ My Experiments with Truth” before they entered the Assembly.

The 10-day yatra started at Shencottah on Friday and went through Tenkasi, Ambasamudram, Tirunelveli, Kovilpatti, Sattur, Virudhunagar and Tirumangalam to reach Madurai on Saturday.

From Madurai, the yatra will go through Dindigul, Karur, Palani, Udumalpet, Anaimalai, Pollachi, Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode, Salem, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Vellore and reach Chennai. From Chennai, it will return to Shencottah via Villupuram, Cuddalore, Chidambaram, Mayiladuthurai, Kumbakonam, Thanjavur, Tiruchi, Pudukottai and Sivaganga.

The organisers said that there was good response for the Gandhian Ahimsa Election Campaign Yatra which reiterated the fact that Gandhism was the only way out to strengthen and save Indian democracy.

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