Disclaimer : I wrote a series of articles for an online magazine called Cheers between 2004-2006, am putting them out here since I found them in Lockdown 2.0 Elections in India - The onlooker's perspective 20 April 2004, 10:55:18 This was the time in our childhood that we used to get weeklong holidays since our school was the polling booth from the time of its existence. The awareness well was very limited (even to my fathers generation) about the politics of parties and governments. Although we belonged to the "elite-educated" class we never knew who even was standing from our constituency. Things have really changed over the years I still remember the time when our young rebel Prime Minister "Rajiv Gandhi" who reduced the voting age from 21 to 18. I immediately was eligible for voting and that increased the voting population by 20% in India. Well look at 20% of Indian population (93 million) that time. Quite a huge number for the benefit of Congress,...