At least two centres in Maharashtra reported a fault in Electronic Voting machines
that captured all votes only for Congress. (Read: http://www.hindustantimes.com/elections2014/election-beat/defective-evms-transfer-all-votes-to-congress-in-maharashtra/article1-1209215.aspx
). This was attributed to a malfunction but sounds strangely suspect. How come
in both places the votes were getting marked only for Congress? A malfunction
across centres should have been more Party agnostic, right? Malfunctions were reported
in two places. Is there any guarantee that this has not happened elsewhere?
The introduction and
advent of EVMs was supposed to end the menace of booth capturing. Having
already been in use for more than 5 years now such bugs shouldn’t exist in an
electronic gadget anymore. Being the masters of jugaad Indians should have already found a solution to sundry issues
that may have dogged the machines in the past. Why has this bug risen its ugly
head in what is the possibly most critical election of independent India?
General Elections 2014
are truly a crucial election for the nation. We have had 10 years of
mis-governance, inflation, scams and corruption. Safety of women is at an abysmal
low. The nation put up a strong and spirited fight against corruption – a fight
that led to the formation of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The country is fed-up with
scams. The populace is voting against all these ills. Voters are voting for a
change. For development. Every vote counts. And this very vote is being
abducted by “malfunction”.
Exercising suffrage is
probably the only real democratic right that an Indian has. After pressing the
button on the EVM we go back to being ruled; to being silent; to taking
anything meted out to us stoically and spending impotent anger in meaningless rhetoric.
And now machines are stealing away even this small sliver of independence and
democracy from us.
This is unacceptable.
The Election
Commission needs to look into this matter. Additionally the Election Commission
needs to be empowered to take action. As of now the Election commission is like
a parrot faking to be a dog. Except for making a noise it has no rights
whatsoever. So if they find that a candidate has lied in the form of nomination
that they fill, the Election Commission is a mute witness to the fact. Disproportionate
growth in assets – still no bite. Electoral malpractices earn a Show Cause at
best. (As in the case of Sharad Pawar who urged people to cast vote twice by
removing the mark after casting their vote the first time. This should have
been a criminal offense or considered sedition.)
We need to know that
machines are not capturing our votes at their will.