What if no choice is the correct choice?

With general election scheduled to begin on 11 April, M Joseph asked, "Voting is consecrated in our age, but is voting a moral act?" "If we look at the history of Indian elections, we see that the reasons why most Indians voted are these: They had accepted bribes in the form of money and liquor to vote for dangerous men; they voted for corrupt men because such characters seemed capable and street smart; they also voted for the supremacy of their caste and they voted to harm or restrain other communities or religions." "Generally, Indians voted for murderers, rapists and thieves, for the type of men who have to be herded in buses and hidden in resorts by their handlers to keep them form being bought like horses by rival political parties." There is the option of voting for 'None of the Above' (NOTA). In the recent assembly elections in Prime Minister Modi's home state of Gujarat the number of NOTA votes were higher than the margin of victory in 24 constituencies. In Rajasthan NOTA votes were higher than the margin of victory in 15 constituencies. However, the share of NOTA votes have declined in the states which went to polls in December, compared to the elections of 2013. What would have worried politicians was that NOTA received 552,000 votes in Gujarat, compared to a total of 207,000 votes received by Ms Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party. However, the surprise is that more people do not vote for NOTA when the last Lok Sabha spent 1,616 hours on legislative business, less than half the 3,784 hours spent by the first Lok Sabha. The good thing is that members actually spent time on discussing various bills, but 100% of grants were passed without any discussion. No member wanted to be seen to be opposing handouts. "The independence and credibility of our (admittedly imperfect) state institutions have never been so thoroughly in doubt since the Emergency," wrote Prof T Khaitan. "Characterised as the fourth branch of the state -- because of their distinctiveness from the executive, legislature and judiciary -- these institutions are tasked with the protection of key constitutional values such as democracy, legality, impartiality, probity, human rights and price stability." Politicians have no interest in powerful institutions which can hold them to account. The independence and powers of the Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the US, which even President Trump cannot override, must fill them with terror. Hence, elections have been reduced to slogans which have been remarkably successful in the past, wrote S Shekhar, and party manifestos are a list of promises which politicians cannot, or have no intention of keeping, wrote R Singhal. Voting is to exercise a choice. What if the choice is no choice?