The Big Story: Faking it

Following the discovery of thousands of voter ID cards in a house in Bengaluru before the Karnakata elections last month, an event that led to the postponement of polling in that constituency, a fresh controversy is brewing in Madhya Pradesh. The Congress alleged last week that millions of names on the Madhya Pradesh voter rolls are duplicates, and have been repeated across constituencies. Congress leaders submitted evidence to the Election Commission that they claimed was proof of fraudulent entries in the voter ID lists across the state.

According to the party, there were many instances of the same voter being listed in different constituencies, despite having the same name, address and father’s name. In one case, they said that they had found the same name and demographic details repeated across 26 constituencies. Claiming to have scrutinised voter rolls in several districts, the Congress leaders alleged that the fraud could amount to as much as 12% of the entire electorate. “How is it possible that population increased by 24% in 10 years but the number of voters increased by 40%?” asked Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia at a press conference.

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The Bharatiya Janata Party has dimissed the allegations, which the Congress claimed were a conspiracy of the saffron party. But the Election Commission on Monday announced that it was sending four teams to Madhya Pradesh to scrutinise the voter rolls. Each of these two-member teams will take a close look at the voter ID lists and, if it finds duplicate voter names, attempt to figure out how that happened. The Congress has demanded that these repeated names be removed and also that action be taken against the returning officers who might have allowed this to happen.

Considering the current climate of suspicion, not just relating to political players but also the elements of the processes such as the Electronic Voting Machine, the Election Commission’s decision to send teams and scrutinise the allegations is welcome. India is heading into an election year in which allegations are likely to fly around and the reputation of the commission has already been dented by its own actions over the past few months. It is incumbent on the organisation to nevertheless do whatever is necessary to ensure elections both are and appear to be free and fair.

Punditry

  1. C Raja Mohan argues in the Indian Express that Narendra Modi’s “Indo-Pacific” comments at the Shangri-La Dialogue were backed up by actual commitments made to South East Asian nations.
  2. “Food security brings together diverse issues such as inequality, food diversity, indigenous rights and environmental justice,” write Shalini Iyengar and Balakrishna Pisupati in the Hindu. “Given the current crises in India, it is time we prepare a third generation right to food legislation that recognises that a climate-as-usual scenario no longer exist.”
  3. “The collapse of the divestment plan for Air India will now ensure that bureaucrats, politicians and the vast army of its serving and retired employees will continue to enjoy the perks and privileges that the national carrier has extended to them over the years,” says a leader in the Telegraph.

Giggle

Don’t miss

Arka Bhattacharya writes about Mohinder Singh Gill, an Indian who won five collegiate high-jump championships in the United States, in the 1960s and 1970s.

“Gill’s team-mates at Cal. Poly were convinced that he was a ‘hippie’ whose ‘powers’ lay in his turban. The Punjabi even made one for coach Ralph Milburn and Cal. Poly went on to win the conference.

One of his finest victories came in 1971, where Gill won the Division I title, competing next to 12 Olympians. His national record of 16.79 metres at the West Coast Relays in Fresno was at the time, the second highest jump on American soil.

That record stood for 36 years and 46 days till Renjith Maheswary broke it with a jump of 17.04 metres at Guwahati in 2007. In 1993, when Gill was being inducted into the Cal Poly Hall of Fame, the first Asian to have the honour, he still held the university’s record 22 years later.”