The importance of being a citizen

 Oscar Wilde is indeed a witty writer. His "Dorian Gray" is indeed one of the world's best novels, given the truly critical, eternally relevant issues it deals with. He was a poor playwright though. Many Eng Lit special students, too, would not read his silly (in all senses of the term) plays now. 

One such title by him is "The Importance of Being Earnest". It is a play that is much critiqued, almost dismissed, today as a pathetic play. Its title, however, is what our blog today plays with. Why? Coz in the so-called most advanced country,  the U.S, it was on August 26 in the last year of the second decade of the earlier century that women finally understood the importance of being a citizen.

Well, the most important duty of a citizen, especially in a democracy, is the right to vote. The better half of the country that touts itself as the country of aspirations did not enjoy this basic right, as they could not vote in the beginning of the twentieth century. The late nineteenth century Suffragist fight that began in the U.K.  was in real earnest in the U.S. as well. 

There were such anomalies as women candidates in elections even when women were not allowed to be voters. That bitter struggle came to fruition on August 26, 1920. The celebrated American Constitution took a major step towards equality and  inclusiveness via a major amendment. Hence, on the eve of this seminally important day, this title of our blog! 

In our country, post Independence, being a citizen has not been that difficult. We have got many  citizen rights without much ado. One such highly inclusive right as a citizen is the right to vote so that we can democratically elect the government. This earnest right, to continue playing with Wilde's title, has come easy to us.

In fact, come elections, amd many politicians have dreamt of reducing the voting age so that the so-called demographic dividend is advantageous to their respective party. Well, high time, Indian citizens realise the importance of being a voter, a right for which women faced bludgeon blows even in the so-called advanced countries not even a century ago!

Pratima@ The importance of being a citizen, earnest at that, begins with the right to vote, and never ends!