Friday, October 16, 2009

EVM Tampering

History of sorts was created on October 13, 2009 when repolling was ordered in two polling stations at Ziro Assembly election. This is so unexpected of the people of Ziro who are known to be honest and peace-loving. I don't recall a single occasion when there was a repoll in Ziro-Hapoli constituency. It is shameful.

A sticker, exactly similar to the original one with the names of the candidates and the party symbols was printed and pasted over the EVM. The orders of the BJP and TMC candidates on the EVM was exchanged while those of the INC and NCP was exchanged. This manipulation does not seem to benefit either the INC or the TMC candidates who are considered the two strongest ones. Is it a case of an attempted cheating of the electronic machine by a candidate or just a mischief by a prankster? Whatever is the answer, it has cost the government dearly and caused lots of hardships to the voters. Especially this time of the year - the entii pillo.

On the other hand, this single incident exposes one of the hitherto overlooked drawbacks of the much acclaimed electronic voting machine (EVM) introduced in India recently. Possibilities of tampering the EVM has been discussed in many forums, but no one had anticipated this seemingly simple one. One more agenda has been added to the training curriculum for the polling officers in the next election.



People are now talking about the 'brains' of the Apatanis. Well, I like to take that as a compliment. At the same time, I like to take that as a challenge - the challenge to show the right direction to young people with such 'brains', as they can either be used or misused.

I dream that we use them.

11 comments:

  1. Hi,

    Can you upload the same video to youtube?

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  2. Done. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2F0UHrBWaHM

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  3. The same tempering technique was employed in many other polling stations which went for re-poll in A.P, so this is no Tanii special and let's not think of us as smarter then others.

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  4. I have a suspicion the same happened during last Loksabha elections? That may explain the surprising results..

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  5. @anony. I think it's a kind of relief that the same technique was employed in other polling stations as well and that it is not the mischief of an Apatani brain. I, for one, has never thought of us as smarter than others. The Apatanis, in fact, are the biggest fools. You can as me why (though this may not be a good topic for discussion in public forums).

    @buru. That would, really, be sad. Not that I speak in favor of one candidate or the other, but such tempering activities defeat the very soul of democracy itself.

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  6. kanno

    1.can you tell me why you think Apatanis are the greatest fools ?..hahaha . One thing which make me agree slightly with you is..till recently Apatani villages, massively populated, lying in flat terrain only a few hundred yards from the main road did not even have metalled roads or concrete streets!! I dunno what the public or their elected leaders have been doing!

    2.You are very naive to think democracy exists in AP..we have the outer shell, but the inside is empty.I think we are waay behind even Bihar/Up.

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  7. @buru My father told me that the reason of non metalling with coal tar was . . . . Metalling was delibrately discouraged to concern department as it created hindrance to person involved in fire fight or saving mats as it melt in high temp but . . . Concrete ! No idea why it was not done . May be cost factor.

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  8. tutho..actually I was talking of metalling the approach roads and putting concrete streets.The village streets were apalling in monsoon, esp with the black alluvial mush.

    why it struck me was because elsewhere in AP even much smaller villages forced their leaders to bring in metalled roads ;so cost is not a factor because the PWD made those roads for 'free'.

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  9. Hey guys! Hope the upcoming biometric EPIC card rule the roost for vibrant democracy, unlike the evasion of the road metal pavement issue plank during recent assembly election in the context of ziro hapoli segment.

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