Mandatory Voting

I am not a big fan of mandatory voting. This has less (read hardly anything) to do with individual rights. Even if I were a Randroid instead of a Hindu Fascist, mandatory voting is no more a violation of individual rights than mandatory taxation. The reason I am not in favor of making voting mandatory is it inconveniences people without anything positive to show for it. I have written it many time but it bears repeating, problem with democracy in India is disengagement at grass root level, people blame this disengagement for disenchantment with the democratic institutions and this is true to some extent, however the main reason for this disengagements, I believe, is that our democratic institutions, combination of Westminster style democracy and relics of colonialism, were imported, instead of being allowed to evolve from existing social institutions. The result of this was culturally there was hardly any connection between democracy and Indian society, which is manifested in the disengagement.  

Forcing people to exercise their franchise will not change this situation.