Latest news with #M.G.Devasahayam
The Hindu
a day ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Major irregularities in 2024 Maharashtra Assembly polls, claims Vote for Democracy report
Vote for Democracy (VFD), a civic action group led by distinguished experts, has released a constituency-level analysis of Maharashtra's 288 Assembly seats, highlighting serious anomalies in the November 2024 election. The report, titled 'Dysfunctional ECI and Weaponisation of India's Election System', draws on official Election Commission of India (ECI) and Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) data as well as accounts from polling staff and voters, raising questions about transparency and accountability. The civic group is guided by election experts M.G. Devasahayam, IAS (retired), Coordinator of Citizens' Commission on Elections; Professor Pyara Lal Garg, former Dean, Panjab University; Madhav Deshpande, specialist in computer software and architecture, and Professor Harish Karnick, former Professor, Computer Science, IIT-Kanpur. Systemic vulnerabilities The report released on Saturday (August 16, 2025) states that the 'weaponisation' of India's electoral system lies in the vulnerabilities of four components of the electronic voting process — microchips that record votes, Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs), Symbol Loading Units (SLUs), and electoral rolls. According to VFD, the system has ceased to be standalone since 2017 and is now linked to the internet, making it susceptible to manipulation. It further alleges that the ECI's methods of managing voter rolls have created large-scale disenfranchisement, cumulatively posing a serious threat to electoral democracy. VFD notes that in the November 2024 polls, Maharashtra recorded a sudden late-night surge in turnout. At 5 p.m., voter turnout stood at 58.22%, but by midnight it had risen to 66.05%, a jump of 7.83%, which amounted to about 48 lakh extra votes. The sharpest increases were recorded in Nanded, Jalgaon, Hingoli, Solapur, Beed, and Dhule, where double-digit spikes were observed, even though historically such late surges have been minimal. The report also points out that several seats were decided by very narrow margins, with 25 seats won by fewer than 3,000 votes and 69 seats by fewer than 10,000 votes, suggesting that even small anomalies could have changed outcomes. Erratic changes The study highlights erratic changes in the electoral roll between the May 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the November 2024 Assembly polls. In just six months, the rolls expanded by more than 46 lakh voters, concentrated across 12,000 polling booths in 85 constituencies, predominantly in areas where the BJP had lost in the parliamentary elections. Some booths reportedly added more than 600 voters after 5 p.m., which would have implied an additional ten hours of polling that did not occur in reality. Official records also showed discrepancies, with the ECI reporting over 9.64 crore voters on August 30, 2024, while the CEO of Maharashtra reported 9.53 crore for the same date. Within weeks, these numbers fluctuated sharply, with a sudden increase of over 16 lakh voters between October 15 and October 30, 2024. According to the report, the data mismatches between 2019 and 2024 are also significant. In 2019, Maharashtra's voter rolls for the Assembly polls were larger than those for the Lok Sabha polls by about 11.6 lakh voters, while votes polled increased by 8.4 lakh between the two elections. In 2024, however, the discrepancy was far higher, with rolls growing by nearly 40 lakh voters between the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls and votes polled increasing by more than 71 lakh in the same period. The report notes that voter rolls grew by 71.8 lakh between the 2019 and 2024 Assembly elections, while votes polled jumped by 96.7 lakh, a rise not explained by demographic trends. The report further observes sudden and disproportionate vote surges that benefited specific parties. In the Lok Sabha elections held in May 2024, the BJP averaged about 88,713 votes per Assembly segment, whereas in the Assembly elections in November the average rose to 1,16,064 votes per seat, reflecting a sudden gain of 28,000 votes per seat without corresponding demographic growth. For example, in Kamthi, the Congress vote remained at about 1.35 lakh while the BJP gained 56,000 votes, and in Karad (South) the tally rose by 41,000 votes in just six months, a change not seen in five years. In Nanded, the Congress won the parliamentary seat but lost all six Assembly segments in the same area, receiving 1.59 lakh fewer votes despite simultaneous polling. In high-profile seats VFD also draws attention to high-profile anomalies, such as the addition of 29,219 voters in Nagpur South-West in six months, exceeding the ECI's 4% verification threshold, with local booth officials admitting incomplete checks. In Solapur's Markadwadi village, residents alleged that the EVM results did not reflect the actual votes cast, while police blocked a mock poll using paper ballots. The report mentions several procedural and technical concerns, including the presence of routers near polling stations, sudden power cuts during counting, late arrival of EVMs at strong rooms, failures of CCTV surveillance, mismatches between Form 17C records and control unit counts, unexplained EVM battery readings, and alleged breaches of strong rooms. It questions whether the ECI has independent control over the EVM source code and highlights potential conflicts of interest, noting that BJP members sit on the boards of ECIL and BEL, the manufacturers of EVMs. Amending ECI rules Concerns were also raised about data secrecy and legal changes curtailing scrutiny. In December 2024, the ECI amended Rule 93 of the Conduct of Election Rules to restrict access to CCTV footage and Form 17C, just days after a court ordered their release in another State's polls. In May 2025, the retention period for CCTV footage was reduced from one year to 45 days, allowing evidence to be destroyed before legal challenges could proceed. Despite 100% webcasting of polling stations, neither video footage nor VVPAT slips are available for public verification. The report further says that over 100 complaints of hate speech were filed during the Maharashtra polls, including against specific leaders, but no visible action was taken by the ECI. VFD concludes that the scale, precision, and constituency-specific targeting of these anomalies point to a structured pattern of electoral manipulation rather than administrative error. It warns that Maharashtra's 2024 Assembly elections serve as a case study of how India's election system can be weaponised, and calls the findings a warning for future polls across the country. Call for decentralisation The organisation has demanded that the voter system be decentralised, with the ECI conducting only parliamentary and presidential elections while State Election Commissions conduct Assembly and local polls. It has also called for a forensic audit of EVMs, VVPATs, and voter rolls, public release of machine-readable rolls and election records, reversal of restrictive amendments to Rule 93, and legislative guarantees for end-to-end vote verifiability.
The Hindu
02-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Does the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar risk mass disenfranchisement?
The Election Commission of India is going to conduct a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar. Bihar is due to hold Assembly elections before November22, which is when the term of the current assembly ends. This revision exercise requires all voters who were enrolled after 2003, to provide proof of their and their parents' citizenship, in order to get their names on the electoral rolls. This elaborate exercise is supposed to be completed in two to three months. It has raised many questions, and fears of mass disenfranchisement, and backdoor implementation of the controversial National Register of Citizens or NRC. When does the EC normally conduct an SIR? What was the reason for initiating it now, just before State elections? Are the fears of disenfranchisement justified? Guest: M.G. Devasahayam, a former IAS officer, who is also Co-ordinator, Citizen's Commission on Elections. Host: G Sampath. Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Jude Francis Weston
The Wire
23-05-2025
- Politics
- The Wire
Political Rent-seeking of Armed Forces is Detrimental to Democracy
Menu हिंदी తెలుగు اردو Home Politics Economy World Security Law Science Society Culture Editor's Pick Opinion Support independent journalism. Donate Now Politics Political Rent-seeking of Armed Forces is Detrimental to Democracy M.G. Devasahayam 6 minutes ago In politics, rent-seeking activities aim to create false narratives to manipulate people's minds. BJP supporters take part in a Tiranga Yatra to celebrate the success of Operation Sindoor and to express solidarity with the armed forces, in Nagpur, Monday, May 19, 2025. Photo: PTI Real journalism holds power accountable Since 2015, The Wire has done just that. But we can continue only with your support. Contribute now Rent-seeking is a concept in economics that states that an individual or an entity seeks to increase their own wealth without creating any benefits or wealth to the society. Rent-seeking activities aim to obtain financial gains and benefits through the manipulation of the distribution of economic resources. Economists view such activities as detrimental to the economy and society. The practice reduces economic efficiency through the inefficient allocation of resources. Also, it commonly leads to other damaging consequences, including a rise in income inequality, lost government revenues, and a decrease in competition.' Applied to politics, rent-seeking means political leaders seeking to enhance their power and influence without any benefit to the people. In politics, rent-seeking activities aim to create false narratives to manipulate people's minds for covering up corruption, incompetencies and inefficiencies while gaining electoral advantages. This is done through exaggerated claims put forth by 'self-appointed experts' and mass media indulging in 'fake nationalism' and 'cult promotion'. This kind of rent-seeking lowers nation's honour and could result in damaging consequences to its democratic fabric. More of symbolism than facts This is precisely what is happening to the Armed Forces in the case of 'Operation Sindoor'. The first major rent-seeking is the name 'Operation Sindoor' itself. The Wire puts it succinctly by drawing comparison to the 'Operation Trident' which was India's deadly strike at the Karachi airport which broke the back of the Pakistan Navy in the 1971 war: 'Fifty-five years later, on the morning of May 7 (2025) Indians across the country woke up to another Indian operation in Pakistan, code-named 'Operation Sindoor.' This Indian operation that struck at nine strategic locations within Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) to hit terrorist dens across the border, is not comparable to 'Operation Trident' – not in terms of its effect, certainly not in terms of its aim. That's because unlike Operation Trident, Operation Sindoor is also expected to deliver dividends in domestic politics to the government of the day, or rather the Prime Minister.' The second rent-seeking is making two young female military officers (one Army colonel from corps of signals and one Air Force wing commander who is a helicopter pilot) as the mascots to brief about 'Operation Sindoor' along with the foreign secretary, Vikram Misri. This looked bizarre because once military operations break out, it is the job of the Director General Military Operations (a Lt General rank officer) to do the briefing along with his counterparts in the Air Force and Navy. This time around it was more of symbolism than facts to show-case the government as launching a 'military operation' to safeguard Sindoor, a vermillion worn by many Indian women to indicate their married status! Even the communal angle was also ruthlessly exploited when the Madhya Pradesh Minister Vijay Shah made a public statement referring to Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, one of the officers who made the briefing saying that ' those [terrorists] who wiped out the vermilion of our sisters [in the Pahalgam attack]… we avenged these people by sending their sister to destroy them.' Third is the whipping up of war frenzy through the vitriolic media which was nauseating. The hate-induced warmongering which pervaded the news broadcasts from these media actually amounts to an abetment of waging of war against another country punishable under Section 153 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Giving all the credit to the ruling politicians War is the worst curse for humanity, especially for a country where a meagre income of Rs. 2.9 lakhs per annum puts you in the top 10% bracket! Besides, death and destruction, wars could lead to collapse of the economy and sharp fall in GDP resulting in accelerated poverty and unemployment. In this context, the famous words of the most celebrated soldier of the modern era General Dwight D Eisenhower, who went on to become the President of the United States of America bears testimony: 'Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in a final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. … Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on an iron cross… I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.' Then comes the exaggerated hypes of victory and giving all the credit to the ruling politicians in general and the Prime Minister in particular. Look at what the deputy chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Jagdish Devda said: 'Pradhanmantri ji ko bhi dhanyawad dena chahenge, aur pura desh, desh ki wo sena, wo sainik, unke charno mein natmastak hain. Unke charno mein pura desh natmastak hai. Unhone jo jawab diya hai (We would also like to thank the Prime Minister; the entire country, the country's Army, its soldiers are bowing at his feet. The entire country is bowing at his feet. For the response he gave).' In 2019 too, Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of UP made a similar derogatory statement against the defence forces by calling it 'Modiji ki sena'. This mentality has even infested the Dravidian fortress of Tamil Nadu when a former minister of the AIADMK government, Sellur Raju made this rant while criticising a rally led by Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin in support of Operation Sindoor and the Indian Defence forces: 'Did the Army men go and fight? It was the central government which brought all this technology. The Prime Minister bought and gave [it] when Defence Minister Rajnath Singh asked for them. So first you need to appreciate the Prime Minister, but instead DMK is doing it for Army men. What kind of drama is this?' Also Read: Modi Says 'Not Blood, Hot Sindoor' Flows In His Veins In First Public Address Since Op Sindoor Rantings of the chief minister and the ministers only showed their outright ignorance or disrespect for the letter and spirit of Article 53 of the Constitution of India, which defines executive power of the Union as follows: '(1) The executive power of the Union shall be vested in the President and shall be exercised by him either directly or through officers subordinate to him in accordance with this Constitution. (2) Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing provision, the supreme command of the Defence Forces of the Union shall be vested in the President and the exercise thereof shall be regulated by law.' A reading of the Preamble of the Constitution of India shows that it was promulgated, with the intention of having India as a sovereign country, which would ensure all the citizens the unity and integrity of the nation. Indian Armed Forces exist to uphold the said ideals of the Constitution. Accordingly, the Army Doctrine-2004 clearly lays down its primary role as preservation of national interests and safeguarding the sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity of India against any external threat by deterrence or by waging war. This is applicable to Air Force and Navy also. Armed Forces therefore have a constitutional duty to protect the country form any external aggression and internal turmoil. While undertaking any military operation it is this constitutional role that the Armed Forces play and therefore are not subservient to or beholden to any politician or political party in power. Doing so, will seriously endanger India's democratic fabric. As it is, due to the extreme asymmetry in state, money and media power there is no 'level playing field' among political parties while contesting elections. BJP's Tiranga Yatra is meant to further amplify this rent-seeking Now, India's Election System (IES) itself is being weaponised. EVM-centered IES has three technical components. Microcontroller, to record the votes cast by the voter, voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPATs) to audit and verify that the votes are recorded as cast and counted as recorded and Symbol Loading Units (SLUs), the 'device' that feeds EVM candidate information. Integrity of the microcontroller is suspect because their design and source of procurement are kept a closely guarded secret. According to technical experts, EVM contains multiple labile memories that records each vote as it is cast. It also has the key to candidate mapping in labile memory (through SLUs) since this varies in each constituency and is needed to print the contents of each VVPAT slip. The presence of labile memory through SLUs implies that those values can be manipulated. What is worse, SLUs are not subject to any security protocol! Also Read: Row Over Operation Sindoor Message on Train Tickets: Opposition Says Govt 'Using War as Opportunity' Through bluff and bluster Election Commission has reduced the VVPATs into meaningless 'bioscopes! According to experts, this deliberate denial of verifiability and auditability has facilitated spurious injection of votes in various constituencies by hiking of vote percentages in all phases of polling. Registration manipulation, which is the padding of the electoral roll facilitates this. With the election system so weaponised, all that is needed is a media-driven 'nationalist narrative' to manipulate and steal people's mandate to capture power. That is why a military operation which should be 'secret and stealthy' is being given wide and wild publicity endangering the lives of defence personnel! The 'Tiranga Yatra' BJP is hosting to 'honour Indian army' is meant to amplify this rent-seeking further! The objective seems to be to win the forthcoming Bihar assembly elections like the party did post-Pulwama in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. This is detrimental to India's democracy. Major M.G. Devasahayam IAS (Retd), had fought in the Indo-Pak War, 1965 and also took part in counter-insurgency operations in Nagaland. Make a contribution to Independent Journalism Related News For Arms Dealers, Operation Sindoor Was Not a Crisis Conflict But a Business Opportunity 'Losses Are Part of Combat', IAF Says But Declines to Share Details of What Platforms India Lost Row Over Operation Sindoor Message on Train Tickets: Opposition Says Govt 'Using War as Opportunity' 'Terrorist Infrastructure' in Pakistan, PoK Targeted, Says Indian Army; Pak Says It 'Downed' Indian Aircraft On Operation Sindoor Delegations, TMC Cries Foul Over Govt 'Unilateral' Call on Delegates The Many Failures of Operation Sindoor Row Over Army Statement That India's Air Defence System Shielded Golden Temple From Pakistan's Strikes After Rijiju Dials Mamata, TMC Picks Abhishek Banerjee to Join Op Sindoor All-Party Delegations 'Entire Nation Ashamed of You': SC Rejects BJP Minister's Apology For Remarks on Col Sofiya Qureshi About Us Contact Us Support Us © Copyright. All Rights Reserved.
