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| Satish Acharya's Cartoon on how votes were bought in Bihar |
My wife has been stripped of her voting rights in the
revised electoral roll. She has always been a conscientious voter unlike me. I
refused to vote in the last Lok Sabha election though I stood outside the
polling booth for Maggie to perform what she claimed was her duty as a citizen.
The irony now is that she, the dutiful citizen, has been stripped of the right,
while I, the ostensible renegade gets the right that I don’t care for.
Since the Booth Level Officer [BLO]
was my neighbour, he went out of his way to ring up some higher officer,
sitting in my house, to enquire about Maggie’s exclusion. As a result, I was given
the assurance that he, the BLO, would do whatever was in his power to get my
wife her voting right. More than the voting right, what really bothered me was
whether the Modi government was going to strip my wife of her Indian
citizenship. Anything is possible in Modi’s India: Modi hai to Mumkin hai.
Just look at the Bihar Assembly
election results that came out yesterday. Modi has proved that he is greater
than Bharat’s ancient kings who invaded neighbouring kingdoms with impunity with
the help of a religious ritual called Ashwamedha Yajna. All the lands on
which the horse wandered became an extension of the king’s country. If any
other king resisted, there would be war and subjugation.
Modi’s Ashwa [horse] is the Election
Commission of India. This modern Ashwa didn’t have to go trotting all over
Bihar to garner subjugation. Ashwa had only to sit in his airconditioned office
in Delhi and sleep. Or pretend not to see anything. There was a whole army to
do the actual job.
Like Cash for Vote, for
example. INR 10,000 was given to each voting woman in Bihar to secure their
votes for Modiji’s party. More than 25 lakh women received that bribe. Never
mind the Model of Code of Conduct was in place. Ashwa pretended not to see such
things.
Like my wife, many people went missing
from the electoral rolls in Bihar. Foreign media reported
that no less than 6.5 million names were removed from the electoral rolls ahead
of the 2025 Assembly election. Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has been shouting
himself hoarse for months on this issue. “Vote chori,” he called it. Thieving
of votes by BJP. Millions or real voters went missing from the rolls and
millions of ghost voters emerged. Modern Ashwamedha.
I refused to vote in the last Lok
Sabha election (2024) because I knew the results were predetermined. Predestined.
By the Electronic Voting Machines [EVM]. Not in Kerala, of course. But in many
other states where Ashwa had a free rein. My refusal to vote was my way of
registering a protest against the corruption in the electoral system. I know it’s
a very feeble, futile, protest. Yet, my conscience matters to me. My personal
dharma is a lot more important to me than a cancerous Sanatan Dharma.
Anyone who knows about electronic
systems that rely on chips will understand how easy it is to replace the
Central Processing Unit of the EVMs with a tampered look-alike CPU. When
the entire governance machinery is within one individual’s control, such
tampering is child’s play.
We know that there are many security
lapses taking place all over with regard to the electoral processes.
Opposition parties have levelled many allegations about CCTV cameras being
switched off or unauthorised persons entering the strong rooms where EVMs are
stored between polling and counting.
Anything is possible. Modi hai to
Mumkin hai.
We have reached absolute rock bottom and we are up against a mammoth corrupt system. I wonder how we are ever going to get past this.
ReplyDeleteHistory has the lesson, Jai. It's always like this - entropy: evil keeps mounting until the system collapses internally, implosion. And then we begin anew. How many will perish in that implosion, we can't ever predict. But I assure you, an implosion is on the way.
DeleteHari Om
ReplyDeleteOh yes, indeed, anything is possible with Modi there...(was there ever such blatant propoganda?) I agree with your good wife; the vote was hard won so should not be wasted. I would like to think that at least a small portion of the many who accepted the 'incentive' still went in and voted against! I cannot help but think EVMs may also mean loss of the essential 'blind' ballot, however... YAM xx
Whether you vote against or for doesn't matter. I'm convinced that those machines are programmed to send all votes to India's latest bhagwan. We're a very religious nation, you see.
DeleteHari Om
Delete...and then when the post reappeared on my reading list I wondered, 'what has he added?'... Well, look at that! Congratulations and well-earned! Yxx
🙏
DeleteWell, I must acknowledge the secularist credentials of Blogchatter which has highlighted many similar posts of mine.
Getting autobiographical. I too imagine for myself, the plight of Maggie. Becoming voteless and God forbid. Becoming a non-citizen and sent to the Detention Centre, ever in exile, in my own motherland,... As Tagore opposed Gandhi, on his nationalism, and batted for borderless, humanitarianism, I would love to be a citizen of the world. "Get out of my way. Don't block the Sun, falling over me. "- Diogenes to Alexander, from the drum.
ReplyDeleteThe BLO assured me that this problem could be solved without much hassle. But Maggie will be registered as a new voter. That has a lot of legal ramifications given Modimachiney's working style. What are they up to? Who can predict?
DeleteIf they had targeted me I'd have had a raucous laugh.
To me, the victory of NDA didn't come as a surprise. What was surprising though was the margin of victory.
ReplyDeleteThe opposition should shift their focus from Modi to themselves. Then things will definitely change. One -- perhaps the most important -- reason why NDA candidates keep winning is that there is no alternative. I really can't get it why the opposition is not -- actually, never -- able to get its acts together if the BJP is not doing a good job.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, we saw the opposition a lot more united; and that did translate into votes. As long as the opposition is fractured, a huge majority of people, who are not happy with BJP will keep voting for them.
Stand united. Don't send mixed messages. Strategise poll campaigns better than what they are now doing. Don't let this impression get across that the regional leaders are only trying to oust Modi and become PM. Instead of keeping on criticising Modi, the opposition has to impress people how they can do better than what Modi is doing.
It's important for democracy to have a strong opposition. These one-sided contests don't help anyone. The earlier the Opposition realises it, the better.
Yes, the margin is what surprises me too. I'm sure that the entire thing is engineered so perfectly that even BJP is surprised. They were preparing ladoos the whole night and yet they turned out to be insufficient for the scale of the party's victoty!
DeleteThere is no opposition worth the name. Rahul Gandhi is as effete as a child in front of a giant. His forthrightness and transparency won't work with the darkness of BJP's strategies. You have to confront strategy with strategy, not virtues. Even if the entire opposition stands united, nothing will happen, because the EVMs carry preprogrammed CPUs.
EC, SC, ED, IT... all are with BJP. All the others are just fools. Amen.
That's terrible. I hope this gets cleared up for your wife. Stripping away her voting rights is an act of violence, and I hope it was an error and not those in power taking away her rights.
ReplyDeleteMy enquiry so far shows it's a technical error. But similar error has happened to thousands. Then we have reasons to be suspicious.
DeleteI hope things will improve and clear up.
ReplyDeleteThat will take time. The present dispensation must go, first.
DeleteYes, the Bihar election did not look very straightforward. There were more women voters than men.
ReplyDeleteWomen outnumbered probably due to the 10k bribe or gift. There was a lot doctoring or engineering involved in the whole process. I guess they're sure to 'conquer' West Bengal now.
Delete