However unsatisfactory the candidates, the duty of voting is imperative to the conscientious citizen. If the Party which he prefers is not likely to be returned in a majority, his voting for it none the less will serve at Ieast to diminish the strength of the Parties to which he has objections; and in the composition of a Parliament, the relative strengths of Parties is as important a matter as the party which is able to capture office.

The Opposition when numerically strong, has influence most certainly on the course of legislation and administration though that influence comes next after the governing Party’s. And from influential Opposition to the capturing of Office is not an unbridgeable distance. In the present circumstances of India, consolidating and training an Opposition so as to find an effective rival to the Party in power is a duty of the citizen as much as the returning of a good Party to form the Government.

We trust our fellow-citizens will bear this in mind and prove that the lndian citizen is appreciative of the value of the Vote as an instrument in his hand for shaping his country’s future and his own therein.

– D V G (Public Affairs)