State of EVMs:
RTIs have been filed over 20 lakh missing EVM machines.
//The RTI documents highlighted glaring discrepancies in all three operations—procurement, storage, and deployment—and also pointed to grave financial irregularities to the tune of Rs.116.55 crore. The documents, submitted as “exhibits” to substantiate the arguments of the PIL, brought out huge disparities between the accounting of the number of EVMs the ECI had received over some time and the supply records of the manufacturers. They show that nearly 20 lakh EVMs that the manufacturers affirm to have delivered to the ECI are not in the latter’s possession. Neither the ECI nor the SECs have been able to throw light on the issue of the missing EVMs despite seven hearings of the PIL over the past year.//
2019 Lok Sabha polls rewind:
1. The then Election commissioner Ashok Lavasa dissented the poll panel’s decision over giving clean chit to Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in five cases of violation in Model code, yet in vain. The Supreme court had dutifully directed the Election commission to dispose of all complaints of MCC filed by the Congress against the duo.
2. Lavasa had to recuse himself from all the meetings about MCC issues. Since his repeated insistence to record his minority decision (as dissent notes in the election commission orders) fell to deaf ears.
3. Chief election commissioner Sunil Arora had discounted Lavasa’s concerns as ‘unsavory and avoidable controversy’ despite the latter having sought as much as at least eight communications in this regard?
4. CEC Sunil Arora wrote two letters asking Lavasa to let the election process continue.
5. Centre wrote to 11 PSUs checking for Lavasa’s usage of ‘undue influence’ in his tenure with the power ministry?
6. Enforcement directorate probe and Income tax scanner were unleashed on many family members of Lavasa?
7. Ashok Lavasa writes to Indian Express on the price of honesty. “A society that creates hurdles to exhaust the honest, paves the path for its perdition.”
8. ADR found serious discrepancies in 347 constituencies between voter turnout data collated (provided by EC) and the number of votes counted. The EC covertly deleted the data, to save face. SC had sent notice to EC based on the prima facie evidence from this research since two NGOs sought probe in 2019 LS polls data.
9. The final (authentic) results of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, as per protocol should have been officially made public, immediately after the elections. The data remains provisional.
10. The VVPAT slips were destroyed in a great hurry in just 4 months, while the protocol insists on their retention for at least a year. Especially, when the probe for eight VVPAT mismatches was underway!
11. Also, A crucial part of BJP’s electoral success lies in successfully choking the finances of opposition parties.
BJP’s bank balance at the end of 2019 is whooping 2592 cr while the second biggest party, Congress’s bank balance is 258 cr. Not even 10%. Thanks to the electoral bonds.
- How and why were they introduced?
- What is the necessity behind assuring the donor's anonymity?
- Why the bank charges are borne by us taxpayers?
2020 Delhi polls fiasco:
-The election commission's delay in revealing the turnout figure by a day. FYI, EC reveals the nationwide LS poll turnout on the same day. Delhi is a Union territory with only 70 constituencies after all.
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