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Thumbs up
 A
few days ago, in the state of Andhra Pradesh alone, the Election Commission has
identified 80 lakh bogus voters and the commission successfully deleted the
names from the list.
The total electorate of Andhra
Pradesh comes to around 4.5 crore and with the expected voter turnout of nearly
50 to 55 per cent, the total number of voters who would be enfranchised in the
state may come to around 2.5 crore, 80 lakh bogus votes means that one-third of
the total votes would be bogus votes.
In
Madurai district of Tamil Nadu, the Election Commission has identified and
deleted 30,000 bogus votes in Usilampatti Assembly constituency alone, which has
an electorate of 1.5 lakh. The statistics give the shocking information that our
rulers, both at the Centre and state, are elected by nearly one-third bogus
votes.
The system of voter identity
cards which have been issued to contain bogus voting has become a farce as many
party workers possess 5 to 10 identity cards for every individual.
During the last election, it
was reported that even the identity cards of DMK leader Karunanidhi and the late
Union minister Murasoli Maran were forged. Even after issuing identity cards,
the Election Commission has been still insisting in every election that the
voters can use a list of 15 documents for identification, which means that
identity cards have not been issued to everyone.
With the help of the 15
documents, the party workers successfully execute their gameplan of bogus voting
- for example, a certificate from the village administrative officer (VAO) would
be accepted as identification.
Many party workers prepare
bogus VAO certificates. The presiding officers in the booth cannot verify the
authenticity of the certificate and, as a result, casting bogus votes becomes
convenient.
Even though bogus voting is
punishable as a crime under 'ipersonation' in the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the
presiding officers of the booths are reluctant to lodge a complaint for fear of
being attached by the party workers.
 In
any democracy, rulers should be elected according to the will of the people, but
in Indian democracy, most of the rulers are elected more by the number of bogus
votes than by the will of the people.
So, in our democracy, the
choice of the people is more often relegated to the background and it is these
votes which play a crucial role in electing the rulers of the country.
Even during the ensuing Lok
Sabha election, most of the political parties in India are pinning their hopes
only on these bogus votes which would continue to play a dominant role.
To prevent this malady, while
preparing the electoral roll, the Election Commission should take the thumb
impression of the voters as is being done in the case of passports.
When
the thumb impressions of the voters are fed into the computer all repetitions
can easily be eliminated from the voters list. Based on this, the final voters
list can be prepared.
This would completely eliminate
the inclusion of bogus voters and would ensure a free and fair election. Even
though our Indian politicians are very much aware that bogus votes can be
eliminated completely, they are reluctant to do so as it is not to their
advantage.
And to imagine that American
President Abraham Lincoln once said: 'Democracy is the government of the people,
by the people, for the people'.
Harvey
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