A Page from History : How shall we Vote?

By  Shri MS Golwalkar (Sarsanghchalak RSS)

Shortly the people will go to the polls to elect their representative s to the Lok Sabha and the various Vidhan Sabhas and entrust the governance of the country to them
for the coming five year period. Five years is quite a long period in which much good or harm can be done to the people depending upon the nature of  the representatives. There is no provision in the Constitution for recalling representative who might fail to answer to the electorate or who might go back upon the promises lavished upon  the People at the time of the elections. Heavy is the
responsibility of the voter, therefore. For it is in his hand now to seal the fate of the country for five long years. So the voter has  now to bring all his strong commonsense to bear upon this problem of extreme moment and make the correct choice.
Nehru View Vs. CR View
Leading persons are busy advising the voter. Two main theories have been forthcoming. One has come –so the newspaper reports say—from no less a person than Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru calling upon the people  to ignore the personal character and qualities of the individual candidates and pay attention only to the party—in his case the Congress—and cast their votes for the party. The other view – advocated recently by Shri C Rajagopalachari—is to ignore the party and examine the individual candidate and study his character, for the rightly says it is the  character of the representative of the people which in the last analysis is of utmost importance in the conduct of State business within and without  legislatures. Both these views are partially correct. Both these views, therefore, have to be taken together and a good party with candidates of character and devotion to the national cause, free from all self-seeking, of ability, capable of co-ordinated action, and imbued with coherent national views, has to be chosen by the electorate.
I belong to no political party and no political party has any special claims upon me. I do not, therefore, advocate the cause of any particular person or party. But as a Hindu, devoted to the best of my limited and humble abilities to the cause of Hindu People, I make bold to express my personal views and to make a few suggestions. The people are of course free to accept or reject them. Socialism Leads to Fascism
Of the major parties in the field, the Congress, the PSP and the new Socialists have kept the ideal of socialism before them. Their socialism is not inter-national like that of the communists, but is direct towards the building up of a
socialistic state or a co-operative commonwealth-bombastic words carrying no sense to the average citizen. Socialism of this type has resulted in Nazism in Germany and Fascism in Italy and the history of their rise and fall with all that the world has had to suffer from their totalitarian dictatorship is too well known. There is no guarantee that the same sad tale will not be repeated in our country.
The Communists
The communists are wedded to the Russian group and dream of establishing the Russian system in our country. What that system is can  will be imagined from the recent event in Hungary. The last forty years of their existence have witnessed such blood-baths, such mass massacres as we have no parallel even in the darkest and least civilised periods of history.
Anti-Hindu Parties
In addition all these parties pride themselves on being non-Hindu. Take the example of the various laws
interfering with the Hindu way of life.
The Hindu People, their Dharma, Sanskriti and all they cherish and hold in reverence stand in danger of being wholly obliterated if the reins of power are entrusted in the hands of such elements.
Vote Fearlessly, Boldly, Rightly
I address myself to the great Hindu People, to strive for whom has become my Dharma, the hoary immortal Hindu People whom I worship as the veritable manifestation of the Eternal Divine. I pray to them to rouse themselves to their
self-consciousness and freely and boldly exercise their right of vote without being misled, without being distracted or frightened into upholding any individual or party.   n