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.
