To
Shri Rajiv Kumar
Chief Election Commissioner
Shri Gyanesh Kumar
Election Commissioner
Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu
Election Commissioner
Dear Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, S/Shri Gyanesh Kumar/ Rajiv Kumar,
I refer to a news report (https://theprint.in/politics/only-want-to-clear-doubts-say-markadwadi-residents-as-admin-stops-mock-poll-in-maharashtra-village/2385542/) that “villagers in Markadwadi (a village in Malshiras Assembly Constituency in Maharashtra) prepared to cast their votes once again on Tuesday morning. With a voting booth, ballot paper and counting box ready, they waited to start a mock election by 8 am. But, the police and local administration stopped them. After a back and forth, the proposed voting stood cancelled“
The report has attracted nationwide interest as “the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) candidate Uttam Jankar won against his opponent from the Bharatiya Janata Party—Ram Satpute—by a margin of 13,147 votes. However, in Markadwadi, Jankar polled fewer votes, 843, against Satpute’s 1,003, according to the booth-level election results…..However, on Monday, the police imposed Section 144 in Markadwadi as a preventive measure. The next day, villagers could not go ahead with the mock poll…….on 29 November, the villagers wrote to the local administration, raising suspicions about the EVMs used in the recently concluded Maharashtra assembly polls. The letter……said Jankar could not get fewer votes than Satpute from Markadwadi and requested the local administration to provide for the government machinery required to conduct a ballot paper-based mock poll on 3 December””We just want to know what is true and what is not,” said Vijay Patil, a villager. “There is doubt over the EVM process. That is why we wanted the election on the ballot paper.” “Amar Ghorpade, another villager who turned furious after the local administration refused to let them vote, said, ‘Why are they stopping us? It is not their business. We only want to clear our doubts, so let us vote‘”
The least that a voter wants to know, as a matter of right, is to make sure that the vote cast by him/her has gone to the right candidate according to his/her choice, a right that no authority in the country can deny. Irrespective of the tall claims made by the Election Commission of India (ECI), the EVM is nothing but a mere black box that does not permit the voter to satisfy himself/herself that the VVPAT module has correctly registered his/her vote, which a simple ballot box allows. I am disappointed that the ECI should disrespect this basic right of a voter and obstinately defend the efficacy of the EVM system, despite the fact that there is substantive technical evidence to show that there are segments of it vulnerable to manipulation (https://youtu.be/z5Y6z29El3I).
The Markadwadi villagers’ sentiment is not confined just to that village; it is expressed by many villages across the country. It shows an all-pervading public mistrust of the EVM system.
It is unfortunate that the local authorities should “prohibit” the mock poll proposed to be conducted in the village. How can anyone call those villagers trying to express their commitment to democracy an “unlawful assembly” and suppress the freedom of expression guaranteed by Article 19 of the Constitution? If the Commission has had a role in directing local officials to prohibit the poll, it is all the more unfortunate, as neither Article 324 envisages the Commission to do so, nor any law on elections empowers it.
I refer to my letter of August 3, 2024, preceded by a series of earlier letters, in which I raised concerns about the vulnerability of EVMs, how the ruling BJP has planted its nominees on the Boards of BEL and ECIL, both CPSEs entrusted with the responsibility of supplying EVMs and ensuring the integrity of their performance, how the members of the “Technical Experts Committee” on whose advice the ECI relies on matters relating to EVMs have a conflict of interest and the legal infirmities inherent in the use of EVMs, demanding that the Commission should ensure cross-verification of the votes counted through EVMs vis-a-vis 100% VVPAT count, or at least order such a verification in the case of Constituencies in which the margins are less than 5%. The fact that the Commission has neither cared to acknowledge receiving my letters nor taken action on them shows that it has no satisfactory answers to those concerns. Such inaction on the part of the Commission leads me to the inevitable conclusion that the Commission is fully aware of those concerns but unwilling to invoke its legitimate authority under Article 324, as it is afraid to be on the wrong side of the political executive that seems to control it.
The hesitation on the part of the authorities to allow Markadwadi villagers to go ahead and conduct the mock poll, perhaps tacitly endorsed by you, shows that they are afraid of facing the result of such a mock poll, knowing well that they themselves have no confidence in the efficacy of EVMs.
Any right thinking person placed in your position would have wholeheartedly saluted the Markadwadi villagers for expressing their commitment to exercise their vote and making sure that their vote goes to the candidate of their choice. Perhaps, what many of us have been demanding the Commission to do but, for no valid reason, the Commission has obstinately resisted, the Markadwadi villagers have decided to do it themselves. When the Commission fails to listen to public sentiment, the only alternative left to the people is to find innovative ways to assert their will. I hope that many more Markadwadis will spring up in the coming days to uphold the democratic values that ought to guide our electoral process.
Please recognise the Markadwadi initiative as a wake up call for the Commission to ponder over its own role as an apolitical Constitutional authority that should stand firmly with the people, not take sides with the ruling political executive. If the Commission fails to wake up to this initiative, it will do so at the cost of its public credibility.
Yours sincerely,
EAS Sarma
Former Secretary to the Government of India
Visakhapatnam
