BJP Openly Uses Religion to Appeal for Votes Contrary to Law; Independent EVM Regulator Would Increase Trust in Them

Apr 19, 2024

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Snapshot of the day

April 19, 2024

Siddharth Varadarajan

India is voting today, in the first and largest phase of a national election irrationally stretched out over seven weeks. As of 7 pm, the provisional turnout across the 102 constituencies going to the polls was 60%.

Prime Minister Modi has made all sorts of questionable claims about what he has achieved in the past 10 years but at the end of the day he is hoping the Ram temple will help see him through to a third term.

On the morning of polling, the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar issued a tweet which says, “If you are going to vote, remember this. Who built the Ramlala temple?” (original emphasis). A day earlier, the party made an open appeal for votes invoking religion through its official X handle, in which it referred to the “power” of one vote to the saffron party alongside an image of the idol of Lord Ram in Ayodhya.

The model code of conduct expressly bars appeals “to caste or communal feelings for securing votes”. However, the Election Commission is yet to utter a word on this. Journalists have contacted them. The offending tweet canvasses votes alongside a picture of the idol of Lord Ram at the new temple in Ayodhya during the “surya tilak” ceremony conducted on Ram Navami on Wednesday. The picture shows the “surya tilak” on the idol – an over-engineered high school science trick tom-tommed by the government as a great scientific achievement – and states: “Them: Your one vote to BJP will not make a difference”. “The difference” then points to the “surya tilak” on the idol.

The public can and will make the difference, writes Harshita Kalyan, but let’s not forget its capacity to sprint a surprise.

Sources have told The Wire that many polling booths, particularly in the peripheral areas around Manipur’s capital Imphal, have been completely captured by the Meitei milita group Arambai Tenggol. Sukrita Baruah reports that at least two instances of gunfire were reported near polling booths – with one person sustaining a bullet injury – and that one of these booths was vandalised and documents inside set on fire. A video is also online of a Congress candidate arguing with a police officer, allegedly because Congress agents were being threatened at one booth in Imphal East. Kaybie Chongloi reports that many booths in the Kuki-dominated Kangpokpi district, including those for displaced people, seemed empty after an ‘abstention call’ from a prominent Kuki body.

Violence in Arunachal Pradesh’s Longding district was reported yesterday – the state will vote for parliamentary as well as state assembly representatives today. India Today NE says there was a gunfight between supporters of the BJP and the National People’s Party while the Arunachal Times reports a clash involving sharp weapons. The latter also reports that at least 20 people were injured.

The Economist analysed every episode of ‘Mann Ki Baat’, the prime minister’s radio show, finding that it employs a more positive tone than do his official speeches or election rallies. The magazine found that there are about four explicitly positive words for every 100 as opposed to 0.8 negative ones; that the word ‘inspiring’ features around five times per episode, “almost always in reference to an example of India’s progress”; and that the word ‘yoga’ is mentioned thrice per episode on average. It also says Modi uses the show to defend some of his government’s policies, such as demonetisation, as well as the pran pratishtha ceremony.

The sole Indian woman sailor aboard the MSC Aries, Ann Tessa Joseph, arrived in Kochi yesterday afternoon. She left the ship – which was forcibly taken over by Iranian commandos due to its Israeli connections – with special permission, but the 16 other Indians on board will have to wait for a relief crew to arrive. Foreign minister S Jaishankar attributed Joseph’s release to ‘Modi ki guarantee’.

An individual’s ‘guarantee’ as government slogan and party manifesto weakens democracy, writes Arun Kumar, and also feeds instability and uncertainty, no matter how ‘strong’ the leader. Sanjay Baru says what India needs in a leader is wisdom more than ‘strength’ to deal with global challenges and that Modi has failed the test which the ‘weaker’ Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh passed with flying colours.

Speaking of Jaishankar, his new book” isn't the rich chronicle of how the ministry punches above its weight,” writes Vineet Thakur. “That its uninspired prose isn't called out reveals much about the nation's foreign policy community,” he says, and then proceeds to do the honours. Sample the opening:

There's a joke we’ve all heard some version of. There's a lion hunt. Indian police are involved. A poor donkey is found hung upside down, whipped to bits, braying a confession: he is the lion!

Indian foreign minister S. Jaishankar’s most recent book, Why Bharat Matters, attempts something similar. India is now "a democracy that delivers," one brimming with hope and optimism, and one that knows how to capitalise on its strengths. Like never before, all Indians, especially those abroad, feel immensely proud of their country. But watch out against that pessimistic and divisive old order, one that deviously indulged the country’s insecurities, he warns.

The peak arrival of wheat in mandis typically coincides with Baisakhi, usually falling in mid-April. However, this year, on April 13, both wheat arrivals and procurement hit a five-year low, finds Siraj Hussain in an important analysis.

In The New York Times, Siddhartha Deb writes on Modi’s temples of lies. “Modi and his party are giving India the Hindu utopia they promised, and it amounts to little more than a shiny, garish temple that is a monument to majoritarian violence, surrounded by ... a people impoverished in every way.”

An inter-ministerial committee has finalised the National Education Policy-based ‘National Framework of Early Childhood Stimulation 2024’, which is an activity-based curriculum and layd down month-to-month activities for parents as well as anganwadi and ASHA workers to conduct with children up to three years old, Maitri Porecha reports.

Much of what drives Samajwadi Party candidate Iqra Hasan’s campaign is not just about her as an individual but about the interlinking of caste and community that defines politics in western UP’s Kairana seat, Radhika Bordia says in a report profiling the 28-year-old SP candidate; on the electoral landscape of the seat, including the views of some of its Kashyap (EBC) community; and on how the most backward castes here are moving away from the BJP.

BJP candidate from the Hyderabad seat K Madhavi Latha is in the middle of a controversy after a video of her enacting the shooting of an arrow towards a mosque is doing the rounds on social media. The mosque was covered in white cloth, reportedly to keep it from being damaged by right-wing activists – which is itself a disressing comment on our times. While Latha says the video is ‘incomplete’ and apologised if it hurt anyone, an official from the seat’s incumbent Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party said they would complaint to the Election Commission.

Scientists have recovered the fossilised vertebrae of a 36 to 49-foot (up to 15 m) long and one-ton heavy snake – which they have named Vasuki indicus – in a coal mine in Gujarat. Vasuki lived around 60 million years ago and is one of the largest snakes known to have existed. Will Dunham has more on what scientists think it ate and where it lived.

Maldivian waters heat up

After more than 15 months, former Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen is now a free man. Yesterday, the High Court overturned his conviction for 11 years of prison for bribery and money laundering. The overturning of the December 2022 verdict comes just three days before Maldives votes in multi-party parliamentary elections on April 21.

The former president had not been able to stand in the presidential elections last year due to his conviction. He had supported the opposition coalition’s candidate, Mohamed Muizzu, but had fallen out with him soon after the latter's victory in the elections. Yameen had since formed his own party, People’s National Front (PNF), but it had not been able to field any candidates in the parliamentary elections. The High Court on Thursday overturned two sentences given to Yameen – seven years for money laundering and three years for accepting bribes for leasing an atoll. This has implications for India, in its continuous run-ins with Muizzu. But let’s see how the waters flow. In both nations.

“That will be awesome”

Rohit Sharma, the understated Indian cricket captain when asked about the prospect of an India vs Pakistan Test series overseas said, “That will be awesome”.

In a chat with Adam Gilchrist and Michael Vaughan, Rohit said he would "love" India and Pakistan to resume playing bilateral cricket on a regular basis, something that has been put on hold since Pakistan’s team led by Misbah-ul-Haq crossed over to play a three-match ODI series in 2012-13. "I totally believe that," Rohit said to Vaughan's question on whether for the sake of the health of Test cricket it would be beneficial for both India and Pakistan to play overseas.

Bangladesh’s first tech park stands mostly empty a decade after launch

Nearly a decade since its launch, Bangladesh’s inaugural tech park on the outskirts of Dhaka, funded partly by the World Bank, languishes largely empty, reports Rest of World. Hindered by bureaucratic red tape and lacking essential amenities, the facility struggles to attract workers. Today, only 5,000 work at the facility.

The Long Cable

A Regulator for EVMs Would Increase Trust in Them

S Ananthanarayanan

The continuing arguments about the EVM (Electronic Voting Machine) and the VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail) raise a number of questions.

Basically, the machines are black boxes and what they do cannot be observed or verified, at least by lay-persons. Even professionals would need access to levels of data to be able to detect errors or deviation.

In a nutshell, when a voter presses a key to cast her vote, the EVM adds one vote to a counter that corresponds to the choice made. Verification of a voter’s identity by officials outside the booth and the manual marking of her index finger with indelible ink prevent a second vote in the name of the same voter. In this process, there is no need to collect, physically sort and count ballot papers, and in principle, the votes cast at a polling station can be ready immediately after the last vote is cast.

So what’s the problem? The fear is that some machines could have a malicious program/feature that counts, for instance, every fifth vote cast as a vote for a particular candidate. A feature like this would still record a good number of votes for other candidates, but would assure a given candidate of at least one fifth of the votes cast. In many cases this could assure the victory of a candidate who would otherwise have fallen short.

And the trouble is that the whole thing would be credible and there would be no way to know if this had happened. And then, additionally, there is no possibility of a ‘recount’.

A refinement is where either the voter can see, for a few seconds, on a screen, the name of the candidate, with symbol, for whom she has cast her vote, so that she is assured that the machine did not record her intentions incorrectly, when she pressed a button. But that is all it does. It does not assure the voter that the correct counter was augmented, which is what is important.

This, of course, is just one possible way the EVM could produce incorrect numbers. There may be others, which experts could devise, always with the cardinal feature of not being susceptible for ready verification.

A further refinement, the VVPAT, is where the vote cast is also printed out and the paper evidence is preserved. In principle, the paper slips could then be manually sorted and counted, but that would amount to going back to the manual method.

Given public distrust about this kind of black box voting, many countries, at least in Europe, have gone back to manual vote counting. Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan did emphasise, before the Supreme Court, that Germany, for example, felt that electronic voting was not reliable. But the court diverted the argument by noting that these countries have small numbers to work with.

This standpoint – that the EVM is convenient – can hardly be taken seriously if it has a flaw that does not allow it to serve the purpose for which it is presented as an instrument. “Do not try to upset the system,” is a remark that was heard in the court during the hearing. But do we not need to see if the ‘system’ deserves to stay in place? Is it true that the EVM has deficiencies that render it unsuitable for use?

The fact remains that the inner workings of the machine are not available for observers to see and this, of course, is a serious problem. In the case of other technology, for instance, weights and measures, drugs, industrial reagents, even manufactured products, there are statutory bodies, inspectorates, organisations to notify standards to be attained, etc. Even in the case of schools and universities, there are watchdog authorities to safeguard the consumer.

But when it comes to the EVM, which is the heart and soul of the electoral process, we have not been informed of any objective and expert supervision of the programming of the machines and then their deployment.

The reason for institutions for standards, and inspectorates in respect of different products is that the consumer is not trained in or cannot assure for herself that standards are being met. In the present case, of the EVM, the technology is one that is mysterious to the best of us. Do we not need to be assured, by an agency of utmost credibility, that the system does faithfully record and count votes?

While ISI and the Inspector of Weights and Measures take care of the quality of everyday products, it is the quality of the EVM that can safeguard Parliament. There is surely a crying need for such an authority – independent of the Election Commission, which the apex court itself last year noted is not structured in a way that frees it from influence by the government.

The case of the manual vote was one that evolved over a century and was simple for all to understand. With computers and electronics, we see daily reports of scams and stratagems that leave banks and the police forces mystified. Yes, the country is a leader in IT services, but that is largely because we have cheap labour to populate call centres. And even countries with advanced capability have found the EVM deficient.

The Supreme Court discouraged comparisons with countries that have a lower population. Does an ineffective method become acceptable simply because it is used to tackle a larger number of people? The fact that we have more voters in India makes it more difficult to detect malpractice. This is the reason we need greater assurance that the system is foolproof, rather than making do with what others have found deficient.

The author is a retired civil servant from the Indian Railway Service

Reportedly

What’s up with the Enforcement Directorate? So far, the BJP has used beef and biryani to make political points but now, it seems, mangoes, sugar and sugary tea are also par for the course. AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh today reiterated his party's allegation that a deep conspiracy is being hatched against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and anything can happen with him in prison. An ED lawyer yesterday said in court that Kejriwal, a longtime diabetic, was deliberately eating mangoes and drinking sugar-filled tea to secure bail for medical reasons. Singh, out on bail himself, charged that the BJP's “modus operandi” can stoop to the level of even killing someone. The MP also slammed BJP leaders for 'making fun' of an ailment suffered by Kejriwal and added that 'misleading' news about the Delhi chief minister was being spread through the media.

Deep dive

How do we understand a country like India, where a dominant Hindu majority, enjoying state backing, claims victimhood at the hands of a marginalised Muslim minority? In a comparative analysis of Hindutva and Zionism, sociologist Nandini Sundar says this is part of the ‘hijacking’ of genuine reparation demands in today’s climate of right-wing resurgence, where powerful groups not only negate existing demands from below but also assert their own ones, using the language and moral claims of decolonisation.

Prime number: 86 times more

Raids by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) increased by 86 times between 2014 and 2024 — under the Modi government — as compared to the preceding decade when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was in power, an analysis of official data by PTI found. As per the analysis, arrests and the attachment of assets by the central agency rose by 25 times in the past decade compared to the period between 2004 and 2014. The central agency conducted 7,264 raids in money-laundering cases since the BJP came to power in 2014.

Opeds you don’t want to miss

A jaded and faded prime minister over stretches himself, writes Harish Khare in a sobering and powerful piece on the vanishing charisma of Narendra Modi.
“Modi has been on a spree of ‘interviews’ with no interruptions, follow-ups, or counter-questions.” That’s the Mood of the Media in this election season, writes Kalpana Sharma.
The “burden of communal identities” hangs heavy on some candidates in the first phase of voting for the 2024 Lok Sabha election in Uttar Pradesh, writes Omar Rashid.
To understand what’s in store for India, we have to look at the ideology and politics that shaped its prime minister —Hindutva authoritarianism—writes N. Ram.
Karan Madhok reviews Fire on the Ganges by Radhika Iyengar, which he says, unveils the lives and struggles of Varanasi’s Dom community.
Vir Sanghvi says it is all clear now - that Modi wants a committed governmental, judicial machinery serving BJP vision. He cites Ireland envoy Akhilesh Mishra's hit-job on Congress and his admiration of PM Modi as key evidence.
In 13 key states, says Pradeep Gupta of Axis My India, the NDA faces a tough battle to maintain seats. Despite existing alliances, shifting political dynamics pose significant challenges, he says, even as the lack of cohesion within the opposition INDIA bloc will be in play.
“They are so lazy. They have written off Kashi to Modi and Uttar Pradesh to Yogi” a young voter in Varanasi tells ⁦Swati Chaturvedi⁩. The Gandhis not contesting from UP are raising eyebrows, she says.

Listen up

What is at stake in India’s election, which has just got underway? Sanjay Ruparelia, an associate professor at Toronto Metropolitan University and Jarislowsky Democracy Chair explains why India’s elections matter for democracy – and the balance of power for the rest of the world.

Watch out

Ground issues, disgruntlement over material conditions are right back in the campaign as Modi comes across as tired and jaded and no longer able to stall conversations on issues that matter, Yogendra Yadav tells MK Venu.

Over and out

Why are towering temple gopurams not a thing in North India? Many conspiracy theories claim that it was because of Muslim invaders and blind destruction. The actual answer is much, much weirder: vernacular songs and mediaeval middle-class tax evasion, writes Anirudh Kanisetti.

We found out that Radio Ravish actually puts out podcasts in eight Indian languages. Marathi? Telugu? Tamil? Marathi? Tune in here.

That’s it for today. We’ll be back with you on Monday, on a device near you. If The India Cable was forwarded to you by a friend (perhaps a common friend!) book your own copy by SUBSCRIBING HERE.

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