Elections & Your vote!!!

This is an extract from Mr Aamir Khan's Blog on Times of India Webpage.. Please read it and if you are in India then please go and vote the right person or at least the person about whom you know..

On April 6, I leave for a long vacation to North America with my son Junaid and my daughter Ira.

We're planning to do some serious skiing in Montana.

But, I'm also going to be air-dashing back to Mumbai for a day on April 30 to cast my vote.

I personally believe that it is very important for each of us to cast our vote; and I feel really bad that there a lot of people out there who don't give voting the kind of importance it deserves. If we don't make an informed choice, we only have ourselves to blame.

In earlier years, I didn't spend much time thinking about the election process. I went and cast my vote for Sunil Dutt saab; who was the Congress representative from my constituency in Pali Hill, Bandra.

However this election, a big change has happened.

Besides the Times of India's Lead India campaign, that I am proud to be part of; I'm also equally charged about working with this NGO called ADR (Association for Democratic Reforms) that is a non-political, non-partisan and a non-Governmental organization whose main goal is to strengthen the democracy and governance in India by focusing on fair and transparent electoral processes.

ADR has on their board a group of professors from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad and the National Institute of Design and some IIm alumni. I met these socially conscious group when I was shooting for my film Three Idiots in Bangalore. In a nutshell, when I learnt of the work that they were doing, I decided to come on board.

ADR and its partners have conducted election watch activities in more than 25 States; they're primarily responsible for collecting information from the election commission on all the candidates who are contesting elections (for e.g. his educational qualifications; his wealth, his criminal record (if there is any), so the voting public knows exactly who they are choosing as their leader.

As I said earlier, many people in India don't even bother to go out and cast their vote. This has to change; not only should India be known the world over as the biggest democracy, we should also aim at India being referred to as the best democracy.''

My company Aamir Khan Productions along with my friends Prasoon Joshi and Rakeysh Mehra have made three public service films that can be seen on television, internet sites, newspapers across the country. The messages in these three films are the same-please think before you cast

your vote.

I came on board this whole mission because I feel for the cause. At the end of it all, who you vote for is your prerogative; ADR or I are not telling you who to choose; but yes, we'd definitely like you to make an informed choice. And we are providing the information to you very easily. You have a choice of going on the website--

http://www.nationalelectionwatch.org/

or

 you can call (1-800-110-440); the helpline will be available from Monday to Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm or through a sms to MYNETA (space)(Pincode) to 56070; and you can get a detailed sms on all that you need to know about each candidate to help you make the right choice.

Just one more thing-since elections are being held in the country in four phases, even the information will be available in a phased manner. Just, a week to 10 days before you cast your vote, you can get the complete details on candidates from your constituency.

I have one thing to add before I fly off for my holiday-in these elections "please make your vote count."

- Aamir Khan

India you have to vote because its not only your right but its also your duty!! Vote for India, vote for yourself