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What Narendra Modi’s home district, Mehsana is known for?

Vivek Kumar
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What Narendra Modi’s home district, Mehsana is known for?

PM Narendra Modi belongs to a district called, Mehsana located in the North Gujarat. It is one of the important business districts of Gujarat. From agriculture and dairy farm, Mehsana has important business avenues like ONGC, too. It also many tourist attractions. The literacy ration is quite high in the district. Mehsana has a great political significance for the BJP.

Milk:

The district is known for its local “Mehsani” breed of buffaloes. These buffaloes are most milk producing among all buffalo categories.

The Mehsana District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Ltd., is popularly known as Dudhsagar Dairy. Dudhsagar Dairy is the largest dairy in Asia, processing on an average 1.41 million kilograms of milk each day. It has established a network for procuring milk from 4,500,000 milk producers through 1150 village milk cooperatives.

Dudhsagar dairy  provides 10 lacs liters of milk to Delhi daily through trains and its two satellite diary plants. These two satellite plants are located in Dharuhera industrial estate and Manesar.

Oil and natural gas:

Established in November 1967, the Mehsana fields are one of the highest onshore-producing asset of the ONGC. Covering an area of 6000 km2 with 28 fields in 2007–2008. Mehsana also has 1311 oil wells and 16 gas wells producing 5800 tonnes per day.

Spices:

Mehsana district’s town Unjha is known as the biggest spices and oil seed market of Asia. The APMC market of Unjha is the place where all farmers and traders from states like Rajasthan, Gujarat, Saurashtra come to trade and sell spices and oil seeds like cumin seeds, fennel seeds, fenugreek seeds, dill seeds, ajwain seeds, mustard seeds, sesame seeds, coriander seeds etc.

The annual volume of total trade is $ 353203384.33 (USD) for the financial year 2012-2013. It export spices in countries such as USA, Germany, Central America, New Zealand, Portugal, Poland, and European countries.

Sun Temple:

A Modhera Sun Temple is one of the two most important sun temples in the country is located in Modhera village.

Politics:

In 1984, the BJP won only two Lok Sabha seats in the elections. Even A.B. Vajpeyee and all leaders lost these elections. Mehsana gave a seat to BJP.

Hindutva Laboratory:

Mehsana is knowns a Hindutva laboratory. This district sets a tone for any political party to win elections.

Education:

Mehsana has an average literacy rate of 84.26%, higher than the national average. Male literacy is 91.88%, and female literacy is 76.12%.

Meshana is known for its science and math education. A majority of math and science teachers in Gujarat are from Mehsana districts. Also thousands of doctors and engineers are working in various countries from this district.

Rise of the right : What can the comatose left do to revive itself?

shankaraspeaks
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Rise of the right : What can the comatose left do to revive itself?

Dear Left-Liberals of India,

Hear out this heartfelt message from a brother on your Right. Who knows it might help you understand the disease that’s afflicting your kind and maybe you can do some self treatment.

“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”
– Winston Churchill

This quote by Churchill sums up a democracy and has truth to it. The average voter is really a simpleton who just votes with his heart more than his brain. The forces guiding his choice for a party or candidate are really very fundamental and primate in nature. Raw emotions and a survival instinct innate in every human, that is all there is to it. Any amount of intellectual or knowledge usually takes a back seat when the moment of casting a vote arrives. They are just voting for their own interests, those they perceive as significant in either short term or long term.

Those perceived self interests just like flipping of a coin have a 50% probability of being flawed. Now statistically when someone gives you a 50% odds of losing or committing an error, you normally don’t do that thing. If you do want to play those odds, you might as well play a game of roulette. So there we have it, an average voter casting his vote is just like a game of roulette.

Unknown outcome but a strong hope in your heart and little bit of greed in your eyes to see the ball land on the color of your choice or an even/odd number. Which reminds me of one of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s pet schemes and the Delhi voters game of roulette with him. Pardon my pun my AAP brothers, no offense intended. A little bit of humor helps in these stressful times, you especially are living in and not really used to. Being able to laugh about it will ease some of your gut wrenching pain.

Coming back to the topic, one can clearly see that statistically each voter has equal chance of bungling his vote up and this is built into the DNA of any democracy. But again, that very democracy also has this strange ability to attenuate that error % to an extent when those same average voter is voting along with others. Now add to that a multi party, bicameral parliamentary system of democracy like ours the chances of a single hive mind controlling all of the voters tends to be very less. Even if there is a hive mind, it is usually relegated to smaller voting blocs. The probability of one single political party ending up a massive seat share in the parliament is not great, in fact lesser than 50%.

But once in a while we do see that probability of the simpleton voters giving a nitro boost to a single party and resulting in a lopsided power distribution. While this has it’s inherent benefits of avoiding the mess of a coalition government, bringing efficient administration, it tends also to come with the poison of power which if unchecked, can consume the holder of it and everything that touches it. Most importantly the people who granted that power are the first to be at the receiving end.

Now this is where the Opposition comes into the picture and always remains of paramount importance. It is the duty of the Opposition to keep that poison of power always under sane levels. Now to be able to do that, the Opposition itself has to be first free of the desire to get hold of that power. If they want to drink that poison themselves and are clouded by the lust for it then they neither can police the ruling party nor can they have any sense of integrity to bat for the people that they ought to finally protect when all else fails.

So coming to the crux of this article which is, “The Rise Of The Right aka BJP” and what you can do about it, follow few simple mantras to get yourselves back on the track to being a credible opposition.

  • Stop demonizing the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi at every possible step and turn. It doesn’t help your cause in any way. On the contrary it only pulls the average voter away from your lost cause rightfully. Taking cheap shots at a PM who is perceived as honest, hard working and a man with highest levels of integrity is akin to axing your own foot.
  • Stop playing the Saffron Boogeyman card nonstop in every utterance of yours with the sole aim of polarizing the minorities against the BJP and peddling your age old & debunked narrative of  Saffron Terror and Hindutva menace. It will only help the Right consolidate its base even further and entrench it for good.
  • Stop the game of minority appeasement by doling out freebies and flawed policies that tend to be not only outright unconstitutional but also extremely dangerous for the fabric of a multicultural and diverse nation like ours.
  • Condemn any/all of the nefarious, hate mongering Mullahs, Pastors and Babas alike. Don’t patronize or sugar coat a mullah’s rabid anti-Hindu hate speech as his right to free speech and then go on to land a hammer blow on people like Kamlesh Tiwari in the name of law & order. This hypocrisy has to end. The law should be the same to everyone.
  • Stop frolicking in bed with the corrupt presstitute section of the MSM. Don’t let them set your agenda and it’s tone. Take control of the narrative and set it right. Ever since the rise of Modi & BJP’s steam rolling of all the Left-Liberal forts across the nation in every direction; Only proves that the agenda and narrative that you think are in control of is actually helping the right bury you.Whether that’s for good or bad depends upon on how you react here on. And the so called secular media is inadvertently helping the BJP,nail your coffin tight shut so far. Every time the MSM tries to peddle fear propaganda to revive the Left, an additional nail is being driven into the coffin.
  • Bat for the Hindu majority’s interests in the same way that you go out of your way to appease the minority interests. Stop supporting any sort of state sanctioned discrimination solely against Hindus. Don’t even think of making such travesties a part of your arsenal. Don’t try reducing the peaceful majority to a weak majority with a sinister agenda. It will backfire real bad as you can see by now. Hindus seem to be losing patience with these constant barrage of low blows to their dignity and identity.
  • Stop legitimizing, encouraging and giving a platform to anti-nationals and the Bharat Ki Barbadi gangs that are out there destroy the very fabric of this nation that you so claim to protect. It reeks of ultimate hypocrisy. Outright condemn such groups or individuals who find it fashionable to talk about cutting India into pieces while all along they have been drawing monthly scholarships from the exchequer aka taxpayer. Any Indian worth his salt condemns these nefarious jokers.
  • Finally shun the defunct ideology of communism and any of it’s spin offs. History has shown again and again that communism doesn’t work and it has imploded in style in it’s own crucible, Russia. There is no point in hanging onto the dead skeleton of communism and trying to resuscitate it with media created heroes like kanhaiya kumar. These road side gimmicks dont work anymore and you end up having a united national spirit that reasserts it self time to time, in your face.
  • Focus on issues that matter the most. Issues of governance that touches a billion lives daily. Try being truly objective and constructive in your criticism of the Government.
  • Come out with improved policies and be a real partner in the progress of the nation. Your game of obstructionist politics within the parliament have to stop. You either do or let do. Obstructionism and negative politics will only gut whatever remaining credibility you have left in the People’s eyes. Doesn’t help you make your case when you are stalling the Parliament while the nation watches your shenanigans on live tv.
  • Don’t try at every opportunity to suppress the freedom of speech & expression of those you don’t agree with and then wail like professional mourners from the ivory tower of a gutted edifice, aka secularism when your rights are infringed upon. Freedom of speech is a two way street.
  • Hypocrisy thy name is Left-Liberal is the trending perception and it’s becoming a global phenomenon. In case you have been living under a rock and haven’t yet got an hint of this, you better wake up fast before you are steam rolled by a resurgent right into oblivion.

Finally this is end of my message my Left-Liberal brothers/sisters of India. You need the right as much as they need you. It should be a healthy tug of war that ultimately strengthens the ropes that ties this nation together. Jai Hind!

CM Yogi: Modi-Shah played their Saffron card right

shankaraspeaks
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CM Yogi: Modi-Shah played their Saffron card right

Finally after a week long suspense, speculation and sort of confusion we have an announcement of the choice for UP CM. Yogi Adityanath. And if twitter’s sentiment is one of the ways to check the pulse of left-liberals, they have already sounded the bugle for the upcoming 2019 battle after this shocking yet a pleasant choice of the top BJP leadership.

Mr. Modi & Mr.Shah, you have played your cards right. It can’t get better than Gorakhpur’s firebrand.

First of all in the interest of transparency a full disclosure, I have been a hardcore BJP and Modi supporter since 2009. A left liberal who converted over to the right after opening my eyes & getting disgusted with the dangerous secular propaganda that was being shoved down the nation’s throat in a systematic way to further a dangerous agenda of weakening the nation from within for the benefit of a dynasty’s continued survival.

Honestly speaking, I didn’t even think in my wildest dreams that Yogi Adityanath would even be considered for the CM position, even though I had always felt that he should have been declared as the CM candidate prior to the elections. So waking up to the news of Yogi’s name being picked for the top post was certainly a fantastic.

It’s a well known fact that demographically, politically and by it’s sheer size UP has always been a behemoth in it’s own right. A state that is as big as the United Kingdom and 4 times it’s population can safely be called as a nation in it’s own right. And I will not dwell on the already obvious reasons of UP’s importance on the national scene.

I feel Yogi as CM pick for UP was absolutely an Ace card for the BJP, which they had to play lest it went waste. And it was the best moment to play it, as the opposition lays in tatters and the public mood in UP being highly favorable to not only BJP but also to the overall Hindutva ideology. It really would have been suicidal for BJP to not have realized the fact that it wasn’t just it’s Vikas plank that delivered the state in it’s kitty with such an thumping majority. The Hindu vote consolidation and the obvious polarization wasn’t a coincidence for sure. Hindus in UP voted collectively for far more important issue on the table, Security. Yes, Security is and was the issue. And it ought to be the top priority even before Vikas in my opinion and it’s in the national interest that the security & rights of Hindus to be taken care of.

Whether one likes it or not, the very reason India has been the sole nation with a thriving democracy in a troubled neighborhood is it’s majority Hindu population. If one cares to remove the biased lenses of left-liberal propaganda, it wouldn’t be difficult to see the fact that thanks to it’s Hindu past India has been the strongest defender of Pluralism and Tolerance in every aspect in spite of it’s issues over ages. It never compromised on it solely because of the inherent Hindu predisposition to peace, mutual respect and a natural desire to embrace one and all in it’s bosom. This being weaved into the nation’s DNA over thousands of years, has ensured that the modern India we live in today is a vibrant pluralistic democracy where a sitting CM and a JNU grad has the freedom to even abuse the sitting PM with vilest of words without the fear of repercussions. By reducing Hindus to a useless majority with no say in their own survival, India would only be inaugurating the demise of it’s much celebrated Democracy and effectively cremating it’s freedoms.

What does even Vikas mean in reality when a peaceful majority is being pushed around, threatened, mauled, bullied at every stage, discriminated by an administration that is hell bent upon appeasing it’s minority vote bank? After the Kairana tragedy, I think it was a breaking point for many Hindus in the state clearly who started seeing writing on the wall as to what would happen if Samajwadis hung onto power for one more term. A dangerous pattern had come out in the open and which would have been suicidal to ignore. The same pattern that we saw resulting in the ethnic cleansing of the majority Kashmiri Pundits. Hindus have been strangely suicidal in the past if one flips through the pages of history, inadvertently albeit. Fortunately that seems to be changing and they seem to be opening their eyes fully to the gravity of the problem on their hands which would decide their existence into the next century.

With the rise of vote bank politics, minority appeasement policies to win elections and caste politics to keep Hindus further divided had resulted in the political parties being played right into the hands of radical Islamic and breaking India forces. Rajiv Malhotra dwells on this in detail in his book,”Breaking India” for those who are interested. Hindus were clearly not a vote bank for most of the political parties as Hindus never thought of themselves in such a way. Rather it was more on the lines of caste, which made it even worse for Hindus and there was no incentive for those vying for power to appease them. It was easy to take them for granted. But then all that changed for the first time with rise of Modi in 2014 elections that shook the ground under the Lutyen’s Elite.

A state like UP needs a strong and level headed personality to rule it effectively. A leader who has the ability to be autonomous in his own right without the strings of a high command sitting in Delhi tugging at him. If there is one thing that, most Indians nowadays hate to the core is this high command culture that the Congress Party had so deftly perfected in the last 70 years.

So in that sense, Yogi Adityanath had to be the front runner for this post. His electability even when BJP’s hand was in the gutters during 2004 & 2009 speaks volumes of his personality and electoral appeal. This can only be ignored at BJP’s own peril. The fact that he is popular across the board among both Hindus and Muslims in his own constituency is yet another attestation. And his track record when it comes to actual governance and delivering on public welfare projects in his constituency without any hint of discrimination towards a particular community even when he could afford doing that owing to his Saffron credentials speaks volumes of his character.

Last but not least, without Yogi’s organizational skills and crowd pulling abilities in parts of UP where Yogi commanded legions of followers, I doubt Modi would have been able to address such humongous rallies. If BJP does anything well when compared to the other parties, it is that it lets leaders within grow organically and come to age even before one notices their rise. And Yogi’s time had come.

Most importantly though,one can see Modi-Shah duo’s calculated yet shrewd decision making skill with their CM pick. After the March 11th Modi tsunami in UP, the way obituaries were being written in the media for the idea of India it was clear that there would be a Super Mahagathbandhan against BJP in 2019 general elections and every possible dirty trick in the book would be played to defeat Modi and bury BJP along with him.

In light of this self evident declaration of war by the so called secular parties against Modi-BJP it would have been suicidal to have selected a weak personality as CM of UP who couldn’t command people’s attention on his own without Modi’s oratory skills & aura shining on him. With Yogi as the CM, it now not only forces the Mahagathbandhan parties into the corner and leaves them with no choice but to look towards their traditional vote banks and minority vote banks to bail them out in the 2019 elections. This will result in even more appeasement of minorities even more audacious & brazen, resulting in a further polarization of Hindus on a national scale. This is exactly what BJP would want to happen to help it win even bigger than 2014.

The only way the dangerous vote bank politics and minority appeasement can be destroyed for good of this nation is by reverse polarization of the Hindu majority and a creation of a consolidated Hindu vote bank. There is no other way that can force political parties to realize the futility of minority appeasement and the inherent dangers of such policies to not only Democracy but also to the fabric of a multi cultural nation like India. With Hindus voting as a bloc too, it wouldn’t be long before these so called secular parties would realize they only stand to lose each time.

Adityanath Yogi as CM is the best thing that has happened to UP after ages. He will deliver on Vikas.

The meaning of Modi win for me

Saket Suryesh
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The meaning of Modi win for me

“Have you noticed how continually in history democracy becomes despotism? People call it the decay of democracy. It is simply its fulfilment.” – Wrote GK Chesterton in his acclaimed political satire “The Napoleon of Notting Hill”.

This is a truth of such great wisdom told in such a simplistic manner. It doesn’t matter if he wrote it in 1905 (about a world of 1984). Democracy is a great idea but its strength lies in the constant change. You stop the churn and staleness of status quo seeps in, the water gets muddier, the stench rises and toads will croak. A monarchy derives its power from status quo, the lack of change, the permanence of structure. Democracy on the other hand, thrives on chaos, change and transient nature of the political structure.

Democracy will throw surprises. It will bring people who are watching from the margins, will name the nameless, and raise them to a point where they start resembling aristocratic monarchs, complete with the small coteries as custodians of power, basis their proximity to the source of power. That is the nature of democracy. It moves from democracy to mobocracy to absolute dictatorship. Unless a society maintains a constant vigil, it suffers slipping into the despondent decadence with which every despotic power is known.

We don’t have to look far to understand that. We just need to go back around five years, as the dynasty which ruled India for most of its independent history went into its second term as UPA-2. Corruption was at its peak, dictatorial tendencies were blatant and the society was in a state of absolute despair.  There, to my memory, has been one instance of splendid hope in the history of independent India, when the total dictatorship imposed by Mrs. Indira Gandhi lost election, lost power and a replacement happen. But that was pretty short-lived.

An era of absolute absurdity gave way to an era of complete chaos. The new power-people, who rode to the capital on the promise of safeguarding democratic values, turned out to be as despotic, as power-hungry, and as greedy as their predecessors. The custodians of public morality on whose call the masses rose against unprecedented dictatorship were quickly side-lined and unscrupulous people, closer in the matters of mind and morality to those who were displaced, grabbed power. While Indira had a fantastical notion of evil greatness about her, these people were base and greedy. Their greed, their disdain for democracy, their clinical and pathological understanding of the citizen’s greed was to hound Indian polity for long as we say in Mandal commission and then on with the emergence of casteist and communal parties like RJD and SP.

INC proved that while it was merely evil, the opposition was both inept as well as evil. The stranglehold of Congress over power continued unabated. With Sonia Gandhi, a naturalized Indian (who opted for Indian citizenship after years of deliberation) taking charge, the total lack of interest in the national spirit, causes and ambition was complete. She looked at the natives as greedy people waiting for crumbs to be thrown at them. The only opposition she had was an opposition which was nothing but a milder kind of congress. The leaders of opposition tried best to be good-mannered poor kid who was just granted access into the elite circles of power.

The ecosystem, the ground of which was being prepared during emergency of 1977 was now well entrenched. The media, crushed during emergency, aligned itself to the powers that be. The preamble of constitution was amended, and those who had no idea of what was happening in China and Russia, happily aligned hoping that communism was the best thing to happen for the poor, with welfare state, literally throwing crumbs at people and the power elite getting richer by day and hours. The subjugation of the public will was complete. College campuses, except the technical and professional ones, were proliferated with leftist scholars to the extent of having absolute monarchy over young intellectual minds. Their services were compensated with appearances of power provided by awards and plush assignments. As Congress was on unhindered, unchallenged ascendancy, the common man frantically fell into the depths of unending despondency.

Gloom and helplessness was the general sentiment. Brief interludes of agitation against power was no solace and gave little confidence. India Against Corruption began as a movement against blatant, unashamed corruption at high places under the supervision and support of Congress leadership. Initial version was quickly crushed by violent police action at midnight over unsuspecting, peacefully protesting people by the then Home Minister who is now found talking about humane aspects of policing in terror prone areas on compliant television channels. With one old lady dead as a result of police action, the movement against corruption, at least version 1 of it was quickly crushed. Whatever was left of it, was smoothly hijacked by the ruling congress dispensation and leftist think-tanks by hijacking it through members of NAC, which was de-facto government under the blessings of Congress chief, Sonia Gandhi.

The sullen silences of the people is the worst thing in democracy and that silence, that stillness was the hallmark of India which congress created. Nothing describes it better than a quote by Chesterton of a mythical London of 1984. I am sharing it here and those who have seen the dying of anti-corruption movement with the arrival of Arvind Kejriwal, the complete connivance of media in Nira Radia and Cash-for-votes scam and the perfunctory murmurs (never more than murmurs) by the then opposition on unending string of corruption, a policy of alienation of the majority religion, of appeasement of minority religion, will agree with the general sense of gloom which fell over the nation in the last days of UPA-2. Arvind Kejriwal had by then proven himself to be bigger crook than the scamsters of 77, forming government in 2013 with those he claimed to be the most corrupt and vowed to fight against.

Chesterton writes:

“Terribly quiet; that is in two words the spirit of this age, as I have felt from my cradle. I sometimes wondered how many other people felt the oppression of this union between quietude and terror… It goes on day after day, day after day, and nothing happens; but to me it is like a dream from which I might wake screaming. To me the straightness of our life is the straightness of a thin cord stretched tight. Its stillness is terrible. It might snap with a noise like thunder.”

It is easy to forget the past, when we are over it. But we must not. It was not so far back. We would sit quietly like dead people over the death of hundreds of citizens in Mumbai. There was no way out. Then somewhere towards the end of 2013, Narendra Modi was chosen as the PM candidate of BJP. Narendra Modi was an outsider to the established regime, who was supported by BJP cadres hugely internally, and later by the nation for he was the wild card entry, the man not yet corrupted by the capital. His history gave hope to people with no immediate family, and his relatives living their modest lives in spite of three terms of Narendra Modi as the CM of Gujarat. So very unlike the leaders we knew on national scene, from Sonia to Devegoda, to Laloo to Mulayam. Stories of sudden riches were not around Modi.

Modi happened in 2014. Democracy, rather the democracy, which had already reached its fulfilment of despotism hit back with vengeance. His win, his appointment as leader of the sovereign was considered an aberration, a fluke, which could be rectified, a mistake which could be amended if concerted efforts were made. The ecosystem rose in unison. It was not only a dislike of the outsider which prompted this. It was also an instinct of self-preservation. It was very fortunate for Modi that his ascent was accompanied by democratization of dissent. For long many, the silent majority, the common man, the middle-class had no space, no podium, no microphone available to him.

The protest and dissent was, like everything else, held in control of few hands- the darbari intellectuals. Those who remained silent during emergency, found new voice, with undoubtedly promise and assurance of support of the old royals- the congress. A university which saw suicide of ten students during UPA regime, suddenly went on the boil about the eleventh suicide. It must have been quite intimidating for Narendra Modi. The good thing is that the venom from the past was so deep from Congress for him, when they had written to the US to not give him visa, even as an elected CM of an Indian State, that, thankfully, he never wasted time trying to fit in. That was a blessing for the nation. He began on a blank slate.

The erstwhile royals and courtier did not like this commoner a bit. First there was award-wapsi. Then the media people, those people who acted as a conduit in arranging portfolios, who wrote editorials for consideration to manufacture opinion suddenly discovered their softer side. Those who remained unfazed when their fellow journalists were shot in daylight, or burnt alive; shook with terror and fury in their posh south Delhi bungalows when they were as much as jostled during a protest. Hashtag wars like #intolerance, #FeelsLikeEmergency had just begun. Modi went about his work without baggage of past and with the zeal of a fanatics. Then demonetization happened. The cash collected through corrupt means by old and new entrants in politics was rendered useless at one swift stroke.  They had long since lost the habit of listening to the people.

Now people did not need a platform. Technology gave the meek voice strong enough to reach their elite hearings. They had long since forgotten that as writers and artists they were creating a produce and common-folks were their consumer. They could not bear them talking back and in the process alienate them. They still felt this was a bad dream and will be over soon. They gave voice to the fake fear of the poor during demonetization. In UP election, it was fear of polarization. While Narendra Modi spoke about development without appeasement, these journalists and intellectuals took it upon themselves. Instead of staying limited to their defined role as reporter of the opinions of people who were voting, they reported their own view. Their views were strong, partisan and open. The gloves were off, the pretense was gone. Somewhere in between they would keep insisting their neutral credential, much like Winnie –The-Pooh floating with a balloon and pretending to be a cloud by singing the cloud song.

So lost they were in their hope of ending this nightmare called Modi that they could not even read the disgust of the consumer of the reports they presented, they did not note when the hand that fed them twitched to slap them for their deception. They did not notice that when they interviewed the head of political party, whose candidate went into hiding, after FIR was registered on his (only post the intervention of the Supreme Court) and ended up asking favorite vacation place (London, said the socialist leader of the poorest state in the country), how the viewer cringed and held his daughter protectively. Narendra Modi, literally, came, saw and conquered. The untiring warrior ended his tally with 4/5 in this five state elections. These reporters would come back smug saying how those who thought demonetization will result in rejection of Modi in an election had egg on their face as Modi won the election in most populous state with population adding up to more than the population of UK, France and Germany put together with a clean sweep. It never occurred to them that they themselves were the people with egg on the face that they were talking about.

They complained polarization of majority community. No one explained it better than Arif Mohammad Khan who left congress protesting their Muslim appeasement policy. He said in a TV interview that it was not Hindus who voted for two nation in 1947, but when Muslims voted for it, Hindus were left with India. They had no say in it. Similarly, in a state like UP, where you are polarizing Muslims, with Mayawati, shouting from rooftop, urging Muslims to vote for her, stroking their fears, which both SC and ECI ignored; it was but natural for Hindus to polarize in the only direction which was available to them.

Suddenly the guilt associated with being Hindu was gone even for the educated Hindus. They suddenly had a plausible option. And don’t get me wrong. Hinduism is an inherently secular religion. It doesn’t work on the principle of everyone following Hinduism, it is not expansionist religion. It only wants to exist in peace. Hindus did not turn to BJP for a Sadhvi or a Maharaj. Hindus did not want to vote, irrespective of what media might say, to ensure that all resources be taken away from Muslims and given to Hindus. Hindus went with Modi, because unlike Mayawati or Akhilesh who promised that all will be given to Muslims and Dalits only in case of former and to Muslims and Yadavs, in the case of latter, leaving Hindus out of the equations; Modi promised that development will be brought to Hindus and Muslims alike.

These elections have changed many equations. Pundits are down in the dust from their high pulpits. Some journalists, even now have taken the task of acting like some sort of political opposition to Modi, since the real opposition is decimated. We can only hope that they realize that Narendra Modi is there to stay. Media as a proxy to political opposition does disservice to both media as well as to the politics of the nation. Narendra Modi is not an event in arbitrariness. He is writ firmly on the fate of this nation waking up to the possibility of its greatness. This message goes to the opposition and Narendra Modi alike. Media also must wake up to the new scheme of things with democratization of the space for debate. They have long spoke and listened to themselves. Irom Sharmila’s pathetic loss in Manipur and Arvind Kejriwal’s shameful defeat in the two states AAP contested is living testimony to that. Both must not treat it as a fluke, and both need to rise to the occasion. Change is happening. Silence is snapping and it is snapping like thunder.

Play with numbers in Aiyar way

unpaidtroll
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Play with numbers in Aiyar way

Mani Shankar Aiyar has lately developed a great taste in numbers.  In his recent article what Sonia Gandhi did in 2004, Rahul must do now, He highlighted that BJP and specifically Modi does not represent the majority of the population.

To counter his point, he put forward a few numbers- 69 percent of electorate in 2014 general election and later in 2017, around 58 percent during UP election did not vote (read fall) for Modi or BJP.

Analyzing the numbers is always a fun.

Mr Aiyar thinks, electorate only choose Government. Wrong. Electorate also choose Opposition. Government and Opposition, both are integral part of a democracy. In the same election, electorate decide Government along with Opposition. There is no separate election for Opposition. Some happen to choose Government and some Opposition.

There are dozens of political parties in India. In my opinion, during election, electorate divide parties into two halves.

  • First half consist of party or parties who will represent the people in the Government.
  • Second half are the parties who will represent the people in Opposition.

If we talk about 2014 general election, around 31 percent electorate decided who MUST go in the Government. Directly, 31 percent wanted NDA to be in Government. Indirectly, they also suggested that all parties other than NDA may go to Opposition (provided they win at least one seat). Which is something Mr. Aiyar also agrees with.

What he could not realize is that the rest 69 percent electorate decided, who MUST go in Opposition. Those 69 percent had directly said, UPA and other parties are well fit in the Opposition. Which translates that they did not want NDA to be in Opposition. Indirectly, they were suggesting, NDA have no choice but should form Government.

To summarize, directly or indirectly, 100% electorate decided who should go in Government and who should go in Opposition.

Then, where is the confusion Mr. Aiyar? Modi or BJP enjoys 100 percentage electorate mandate. Whether it is directly or indirectly, does it matter?

Here’s how the Congress can make a comeback

User Name
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Here’s how the Congress can make a comeback

Questions on single parenting by choice

Saket Suryesh
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Questions on single parenting by choice

“Your majesty, please…I don’t like to complain
But down here below, we are feeling great pain.
I know, up on top you are seeing great sights,
but down here at the bottom, we, too, should have rights.”
– Dr. Seuss in “Yertle, The Turtle”

Indian filmmaker and the man with alternate sexual choices who recently came out of closet, to the chagrin of LGBT activists, a wee bit too late, a wee bit too little, is a single father now. This is the front page news. Social media has sprung into action.

This post has been kind of simmering in me for a long time. These are strange times of political correctness. On everything, there are defined positions, which are defined by powers that might be, approved for the lesser mortals as worthy of being taken. If one has some sharpness of the intellect, some audacity of the mind and, well, some brinkmanship of character; one would say that these positions are defined as correct and socially appropriate, not on their merit and substance, rather by their strength to uphold the intellectual stranglehold of the elite, their ability to augment to fake grandeur of their enormous and often monstrous egos.

It is hard to put thoughts in public without the fear of backlash. This is totally strange. Any thought not to the liking of the liberals (a fake term, I debated in my previous post), and you will be pounced by the very people who claim to be fighting for the right to dissent. So dissent you must, but only from the ideas ‘they’ approve. They will oppose the patriarchal masculinity, but will patronize a girl, twenty year old, if they find her words furthering their agenda, and they will attack and hound another twenty year girl, however accomplished she might be, if she happens to disagree with them.

Let us not be fooled by the use of terms like democracy, liberty and Freedom of expression, by people who support the ideology proven worldwide for the establishment of theocratic, absolutist state. GK Chesterton wrote in his satirical novel, The Napoleon of Notting Hill, I was reading few days back (accidental, totally accidental!) which he wrote referring to a fantastical time of 1984 (a fictional future, when he wrote it in 1904), so true, only he predicted the year about three decades too early.

“What a farce is this modern liberality! Freedom of speech practically, in our modern civilization, that we must only talk about unimportant things. We must not talk about religion, because that is illiberal; we must not talk about bread and cheese, because that is talking shop; we must not talk about death, for that is depressing, we must not talk about birth, for that is indelicate.”

But we must talk about birth now. It will invariably fall on the wrong side of the debate, I am sure. Somehow, unconventional sexual preferences are linked with feminist emancipation, not only for women, rather for men, as well. For the life of me, I do not know why. Rights of people are important, for women, for minorities, for LGBTQ. But why must they all be bundle together as if some sort of bouquet. They are not only bundled, but are somehow put in one container and shaken so violently by the interested parties, that one hardly knows which is which. All the affected parties gets impacted by social orthodoxy in different way, but then clubbing it into one group, makes it easier for those who want to handle it as a tool to power, votes or escalation upwards in social hierarchy.

So the fact that Karan Johar, a man with affluent past and even more nauseating affluent present decided to get himself two kids will somehow become a case for personal liberty and one will not even realize when it becomes a case of women’s liberation. Elections in world’s largest democracy quickly became that. Against a man with loose morals and corroding character, the argument was not another ‘person’ of nationalistic credentials, proven character and impeccable morality.

It was a woman. How quickly slogans overwhelm the cause. The world women’s day is around the corner and Spa advertisements will be out to be flipped with manicured fingers in metropolitan cities; journalists and the self-proclaimed guardians of social conscience will make necessary and appropriate noise on Social media, but will sit like an obedient courtier when they are in front of the party leaders who campaign for a candidate charged with rape in recent elections. These will not make to studio debates and the tribal girl will wake up in the morning and go to collect firewood, under the slimy eyes of the forest contractor. Moral correctness will always fall short of political affiliations.

The debate on a Tusshar Kapoor or a Karan Johar or even a Shahrukh Khan opting to have a child through surrogacy, is not a debate on surrogacy. It is also not a debate about Gay rights; nor is it about individual liberty of the man who wants to live an unconventional life and wants to have the fruits of an old-fashioned conventional life. It is also not about the consenting woman who offers her womb for rent, pushed by her economic distress. I would not call it a consent which is given under duress. Although I am not against surrogacy, per se, if it is a service given out of free will, although it will be hard to judge where empathy was elicited by economics for the consenting women, to couples struggling to have progeny. Although even for those couple, I would always advise adoption. There are kids around who deserve a better life, and who are not getting it, rendered homeless by cruel designs of nature, or even crueler designs of their parents.

Parenthood is not about science. It is not an accidental fact. It is not a matter of enthusiastic sperm meeting a kind and receptive egg. It is much deeper than that. One does not become a father on the day of conception or on the day of the birth of the progeny. One becomes that much earlier than that, or the day when one listens to those urgent heartbeats for the first time, or the day you stand with pride on school function, or when an unnoticed tear drops from the corner of your eye when the kid leaves home. It hits at strange occasion in one’s life. In all the process, we must be thankful to the child who is the catalyst to the sense of parenthood, as and when it chooses to embrace us. In the whole scheme of things, it is the child, who is voiceless, vote-less and power less, whose rights concerns me. The way a child is treated as a toy, as a fashion accessories that ‘completes’ a Karan Johar’s or a Tushar Kapoor’s life, is absolutely heart-breaking if one views the whole thing from the eyes of the child.

Do we know if the child will be happy in a single parent’s home? Single parenting is at times thrust on a child, when he has no choice. In evolved societies, there are special counselling for effected kids, landing out of misfortune into a single parent family on account of death or divorce. Why is the mind of child not considered, heart of child is not listened to when single parenting is thrust on the kid merely because the parent wants to enjoy his or her free will? Well, you have a right to have the choices of new age and generation and who am I to stop you. But then why seek age-old pleasures? And if you want to seek age-old pleasures, why with age-old orthodoxy? Why this obsession with DNA after all your sweet and sophisticated talk on the irrelevance of birth, family and caste in today’s world?

And this farcical argument Karan makes in a reverential interview by an interviewer, that he felt he was now ready for fatherhood because he has mentored people in his own organization. What kind of logic is that? So Mr. Johar has not decided to hire another employee in the newly created post of a Son (and one as a daughter). The PR machinery of the king of Bollywood, who yesterday advised a girl from small-town to stop playing victim-hood and get out of movie industry if she cannot handle it. None of the liberals, as was predictable, would rush to the rescue of Kangana Ranaut. Still Kangana can afford to hit back at Karan Johar’s PR machinery with her own.

But the little boy and girl, thrust into a motherless family because of liberal choices their father made, cannot. Karan Johar’s fatherhood will be front page news, while the fetuses of unborn girls of Maharashtra will be page 9 news, somewhere hidden in small corner. Why could he have not volunteered to adopt one of those girls? This foolishness with which we play with nature is wrong at so many levels. There is no moral argument for it. And personal liberty is not a moral argument in itself. Such an argument will only produce a despot. The children, those little people, harbingers of hope, they too have rights, voiceless they may be. Sushmita Sen is a single mother, but she adopted kids. She has given them a life which they otherwise might not have had; Karan Johar, in a hedonistic drive, has offered his kids a life which they never did sign for. If we disown our children in our selfish, individual quests as a society, we are killing our world, in ways harsher than global warming or any such fashionable thing.

Khalil Gibran famously disowned parents from whatever rights parents believed they had on their kids, when he wrote

Your children are not your children
They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself,
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, they belong not to you.

He calls the parents as bows and kids as arrows as he writes:

For even as He loves the arrow that flies
so he loves the bow also that is stable.

Least we can do is- be a stable bow, it is not a job for the frivolous. Dr. Irvin Yalom, American psychiatrist has a view which is closer to my own. He writes, in When Nietzsche Wept –

“It is wrong to bear children out of need, wrong to use a child to alleviate loneliness, wrong to provide purpose in life by reproducing another copy of oneself. It is wrong also to seek immortality by spewing one’s germ into the future as though sperm contains your consciousness”

It is wrong. Parenting is does not make a man god, it merely gives one an opportunity to strive for divinity, to touch divinity. Parenthood is a conscious call to step into an arena where you will fight with yourself; bleed everyday and get better every day. It is not a fulfillment of selfish desires and ambitions. It is not about parents, it is all about the kids, because, they will define the kind of world we leave afterwards and also because, down at the bottom, those little people, chirpy even in the chilliest of the winter mornings like some miniature samurai walking awkwardly to their schools- they too, have rights. Choices are not always about us.

Why I don’t want my son to become a journalist

Pankaj Vaidya
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Why I don’t want my son to become a journalist

My dear son,

I know that you are very angry with us over the argument we had with you yesterday regarding your career plans. We realize that we may have been a bit harsh with you. But believe us; as your parents, what we said was purely out of concern we had for your future.

I know that you have grown up idolizing your mother and me and want to grow up and become a journalist like us. But I request you to read this letter with a calm mind for our sake.

I apologize for my aggressive and intimidating behavior yesterday. Now let me explain why I don’t want you to become a journalist.

You of course realize that we live in a world which is changing at a scary pace putting many vocations at risk. You may have read that automation is likely to lead to loss of a large percentage of jobs in the Indian IT and BPO industry. Self-driven cars will make drivers jobs obsolete. The rise of smart phones and social media has the owner of our favorite Mutton Biryani food joint worried because he is unable to compete against the likes of Foodpanda and Zomato.

We as journalists keep debating all the time about how every other profession is at risk due to automation, social media and the leap of technology. But very few journalists are willing to introspect. I happen to be one of them.

The noble profession of journalism is the most at risk due to the winds of change. Once upon a time, journalists were held in high esteem in society. Today, it is no longer so. We are called all kinds of names.

The social media has reduced the tyranny of distance for becoming a journalist. Today anyone with a smart phone can do what a journalist does, maybe much better. Due to this, there is no more room for creativity and imagination left in this profession, not even for small ones like imagining an unrelated person as the Vice Chancellor of the Banaras Hindu University. You are reduced to reporting the cold, dull, drab, bare facts.

Also, journalism does not require much skills, unlike say farming or dentistry. So you will be time and again proved wrong by the ordinary people- people who have no class. You will never see a farmer’s, barber’s or computer programmer’’s work questioned and proved wrong on public platforms.

There was a time when journalists used to influence the public mood. Now, it is the other way round. For example, look at how the rowdy behavior of the classless people at Madison Square influenced me.

Moreover, after a tiring day job, no one has the energy and more importantly the skills to fact check the work done by an electrician, mason or tailor and prove him wrong. However, since journalism is not a skilled job, many people take out time to fact check and point out flaws in the work of a journalist. These folks working part time without getting paid are the greatest challenge to our paid media profession. Then there are some people like Mediacrooks who have decided to work full time for free and put our livelihoods at risk.

We had made a detailed study of various castes and sub castes in India so as to authoritatively predict election outcome but nowadays people do not vote on expected lines. Just goes to show whatever little skills we had also getting outdated. To add insult to injury, people with poor English grammar challenge us on facts.

Nowadays divisive leaders directly communicate with the masses leaving us high and dry. The good old days when journalists were like Lord Shiva who took the Ganga on his head before passing it to the common man are gone.

The example of Ganga above was just to provide a good analogy for explanation. Please do not show this letter to your mom. If she reads this, she will call me an Internet Hindu. Just a few days back she was shocked that workers of a political party were celebrating an election victory by eating saffron colored laddos.

To tell you the truth, I am now fed up of this profession but I have to drag myself every day to work knowing that abuses are all I will get for the day’s hard work. The profession of journalism has lost its moral compass.

So, my dear son, please chose your career wisely. Please take this as a sage advice coming from an old monk.

Regards,
Your loving and doting father.

2019: Path ahead for BJP

A Gourav
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2019: Path ahead for BJP

Looking at the massive mandate BJP got in UP, there are certain rumors floating around in Indian political circuit. Adversaries will again become allies, politicians jumping camps, call for new alliance formations, etc.

This isn’t unprecedented but positions have changed. Decades ago, it used to be INC vs all. Now, after 2014, it’s BJP vs all. Such political tectonic shift may only be comparable to rise of Janta Party under the leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan, who stood up against the dictatorial intent of Indira Gandhi. But there is difference between 80s period and present.

The jolt to Indian political establishment occurred in 2014 when BJP, with it’s Prime Ministerial Candidate Narendra Modi secured unexpected mandate of 282 seats while NDA crossed 300. This phenomena was given the name ‘Modi wave’. Modi emerged as ‘rockstar’ against all hurdle put against him by his opponents in rival parties or even within BJP, and then 2017 happened. The ‘Modi wave’ turned into ‘Modi Tsunami’, biggest electoral win in UP history.

A mandate of 312 is just unfathomable, unrealistic for political pundits and analysts. Media opinion & exit polls all were completely junked. There are 5 states in which elections were conducted. BJP won 2 with full majority UP & Uttarakhand, INC won one Punjab, and rest Goa and Manipur had fractured mandate, still INC won more seats in both. And the rest of other parties destroyed and decimated.  Yet out of these 5, BJP has established govt in 4 states, which exactly gives us the glimpse as how BJP manages to win one state after the other.

Amit Shah, the president of BJP, believed to be very close to PM Narendra Modi since Gujarat days, has been tirelessly working on ground level to establish BJP and allied govt in as many states as he can. Now BJP with NDA is ruling half of the total India’s population, i.e. 16 Indian states. And that’s giving jitters to the opponents, both on national and regional level as they are aware ‘2019 general election’ is fast approaching.

Even before 2019 several states are going for assembly elections as well. Two of the most important among them are Karnataka and Gujarat. Opposition parties, even now, seem to be on a rudderless ship having no strategy to go forward & counter BJP progress. Among these states, most likely the direct fight will be between BJP and INC.

At the end of the day, it is for the people to decide whom to vote. So, it’s not all win for BJP, having lost Delhi & Bihar in 2015. There has been some reasons behind why BJP didn’t give it all in Delhi or lost Bihar. Probably because of overconfidence among BJP cadre or may be they didn’t sense public mood in either two places.

UP mandate has triggered some new equations among parties. Old allies wish to join back, the talk of bringing all ‘secular forces’ together, a united opposition alliance against BJP. The most talked about, at least among BJP supporters, is Nitish Kumar Ghar Wapasi. Still, in my view, Amit Shah  shouldn’t bring Nitish Kumar back to NDA just yet. Let ‘Mahagathbandhan’ fall on it’s own weight of distrust & weak foundation.

Two reasons BJP can make way back into Delhi and Bihar:

1. AAP in Delhi: One of the reasons why AAP won 67 seats in Delhi because they were untested and relatively new at running the government. Delhi people who were fed up with corrupt congress regime of Sheila Dixit of that time and incompetent BJP Delhi unit. They wanted clean & fresh governance which AAP projecting itself to be. A promise of ‘Imandar Sarkar’. But after 2 years of AAP Govt in Delhi, people have started to realize how pathetic and incompetent Arvind Kejriwal govt is, going back on it’s promises one after another. Not just in Delhi but also in Goa and Punjab where AAP fought elections only on negative campaigning.

In both states AAP was humiliated and decimated. The whole image of Arvind Kejriwal ‘clean image’ went down the drain as his drama politics was exposed. Delhi MCD elections coming up and there may be repeat of AAP recent election fiasco, also chances in Gujarat seems abysmal to say the least. So, now it seems no state will repeat the mistake of electing AAP.

2. Regarding Bihar: Nitish Kumar JDU, used to be BJP ally under NDA, but left since he himself harbored PMship dreams. Probably, out of jealousy towards Modi, he even agreed to form alliance with corrupt & convicted Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD, against whom he fought elections before. He later broke alliance with NDA after Modi emerged as front runner for 2014 general election.

Now, as some news suggests he is sensing his future lies with NDA & not with ‘Mahagathbandhan’. Since Lalu has ulterior motive to get his kith & kin into power in Bihar while undermining Nitish leadership. Many in RJD have expressed the same since they got more seats so the CM should be from RJD which Lalu family seems to want to be either their son or daughter. Nitish does know this as well and that’s why he is subtly sending signals of Gharwapasi, one way or another, for anyone to see.

UP people voted BJP raising above caste lines, unlike in Bihar. Even the Big Dalit leader Mayawati’s Party won only a mere double digit number of 19. Now it is for Bihar people to choose if they want to go back to the era of Lalu raj of black days or do they want to choose development on merit & above caste lines. People were completely fed up understandably so.

Hence it would be premature taking Nitish back in the fold. Amit Shah, being a master strategist, also keenly observing the whole development. Learning from mistakes & defeat in Bihar, he must be taking in account the mood of public in Bihar. Unlike in Delhi, Nitish Kumar still performing relatively good. And so, I feel Shah should let Nitish govt term to complete so that people can get over this JDU,RJD alliance. This will be happening soon as RJD is back to it’s old gimmicks and bad governance where Lalu is calling the shots behind the curtain. Crime rates going up, declining indices on economy parameter, the draconian prohibition law and many scandals in education department of Bihar Govt.

Now, UP mandate can also give clues of polarization. The discrimination on religious line as Akhilesh Yadav state govt policies have shown. Hindus were marginalized. Total collapse of Law & Order that even to file a FIR, the Supreme Court had to intervene. Hardly any economic growth,power crisis, immigration.

Recent elections have, unquestionably, made Narendra Modi the tallest leader and most powerful political figure. The juggernaut of BJP giving nightmares to regional parties and their leaders too. As seen in many local polls. Mamta Benarjee must be wary of these recent victories. What her govt is doing with hindus in Bengal is not a secret.

The polarization is inevitable. Should she still support Jihadi forces in her govt and let BJP sweep in Bengal or is she willing to accept change. That is matter of coming years.

The beauty of Amit Shah strategy is that he is ruthless towards his opponents. He has being applying famous ‘Chanakya Niti’. He,along with his North East master planner Himant Biswas Sharma, have broke Congress factions to establish BJP supported govt in Arunachal Pradesh. Same way, the blistering pace at which govts were established in Goa and Manipur, even with lesser seats than INC, left Congress MLAs fuming and doubts are raised against it’s central leadership & it’s lack luster laid back approach.

Unless, INC or any other BJP rivals bring some solid game plan, 2019 general election is a goner. Not even ‘Mega Grand Alliance’ is going to help them if they don’t sense the very different mood of New India in the age of social media.

Decoding EVM tempering allegations: Kejriwal & Mayawati exposed

Dipesh
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Decoding EVM tempering allegations: Kejriwal & Mayawati exposed

I am writing this blog to protect the faith of voters in free and fair poll process and safeguard our roots of democratic elections in long term. I am writing this blog for common man who is mostly non technical and has lesser knowledge of EVM functioning and the layers of technical securities that takes a EVM to a polling booth for free and fair polling process. I want to expose the ones who have started mischief by creating doubts in the minds of common man that EVMs are rigged.

Here is my open challenge to Arvind Kejriwal, Mayawati & Indian National Congress leaders or anyone who alleges EVMs being rigged or tempered.

With the results of 5 assembly polls just out, there has been a lot of hue and cry about the EVMs being tempered or rigged and these allegations are not new to Indian political setup. The most surprising thing that made me write this piece today is the fact, that, this time around leaders of a few political parties have alleged this. Today, I will try to bring to a common man’s knowledge how these allegations are not only baseless but also why they are being made. I am writing today to expose the political mathematics behind such baseless sensational claims by not having a counter claim but by technical aspects. I will expose these claims by explaining how the EVM is protected by layers of high securities making it nearly impossible to breach with only one exception which I will write at the end of the blog

Know your EVM

EVM or Electronic Voting Machine consists of two parts: 1. The CU or the Control Unit and 2. The BU or the Ballot Unit. (An VVPAT is the latest addition to EVM.) The CU is under the control of Polling Booth Officials who grant permission to the voter to register his/her vote while the BU is placed in a voting compartment in such a way that when the voter registers his/her vote, privacy and secrecy is maintained. (The BU is covered by a three wall structure mostly made up of cardboard.) Both the CU and the BU are connected via a flexible interconnecting cable. There are two PSU companies that manufacture EVMS. The first one is BEL and the second one is ECIL. Each CU and BU have Unique ID or in more technical words its like having a serial number.

Nonsense lies spread by some political parties and leaders:

For fair and transparent conduct of polls, its necessary that the authorities take enough precautions so that possibilities of manipulating technological loop holes are brought to almost zero. Here the Election Commission of India has done a wonderful job by applying manual security layers for free and fair conduct of any polls that use EVMs in India.

I will take you through all the procedures that are mandatory before an EVM reaches its destination i.e. a polling booth so that the clouds of doubts that are casted by the likes of an IRS (shameful that an ex IRS can talk of going back to old age polling method using ballots, which was highly manipulative and very prone to act like booth capturing, manipulations during counting of votes etc) Arvind Kejriwal or the likes of Mayawati both of whom happen to be head of their respective parties i.e. AAP and BSP and some section of INC mouthpieces who have been continuously blabbering without connecting their tongues to their brains just for cheap politics. They allege that the EVMs in UP & Punjab (only UP & Punjab not in Delhi in 2014, not in Manipur, Goa, Uttarakhand in 2017) were either rigged or tempered.

I am surprised by such nonsense and would draw the attention of Hon’ble Supreme Court and Election Commission of India to take a Suo Moto note of these baseless allegations and issue an show cause notice to these leaders who are playing with innocent non technical mindsets of common voters which is very very dangerous for restoring faith in democratic free and fair elections, which actually the case is and these people have created doubts which need to be addressed technically. So here we go.

How does an EVM reach a Polling Booth? Any checks done before?

Yes, and this is the core answer to rub off all the allegations. Here lies all the answers to clear anyone’s doubt if they have shaken their brains due to allegations by people like Arvind Kejriwal who happens to be an Ex IT official and an IRS who is assumed to have education of highest order and when a highly educated person like him alleges, it creates more doubt in the minds of a common man. This is how politics is being played out with a single motive to start the age old Ballot paper voting for easy manipulations. I will now take you to the inroads of political brains like Arvind Kejriwal, Mayawati and people like Tehseen Poonawala who have played mischief by their allegations.

So whenever there is an Parliamentary or Assembly poll about to happen, it needs EVMs for the polls to be conducted. So from where do these EVMs reach the concerned constituency? Every district has an DEO or District Election Officer who is in charge of all the EVM requirements of the total constituencies in his district that are going to poll. The DEO office gets EVMs from different places as per his requirements placed to Election Commission which in turn directs the DEO to collect the required number of EVMs from probably different constituencies or districts where the EVMs are available.

After receiving the EVMs, an FLC or First Level Checking of EVMs is done by the DEO office. They make sure that the received EVM sets are all in working condition by checking all the 16 candidate buttons available on BU and if any BU is found faulty it is separated during this check. There are Engineers from either ECIL or BEL too while this long procedure is done. This procedure can be very time consuming, generally anywhere between 3-5 days. This procedure is never done in any kind of rush as every EVM is verified for proper functioning and registration of votes are verified too.

Then there is a very interesting thing that happens at DEO level. These EVMs are randomized. No constituency can know which particular set of EVMs will they receive. Why is this interesting? Now look at this scenario: There are say 5 constituencies in one district where polls are going to take place. The Ballot Unit contains names and symbols of Contestants. Are these names fixed in order of parties? For ex if one thinks National Parties 1st followed by regional and then independents? The answer is a big “NO”. The sequence of names of contestants are decided by alphabetical order according to that mentioned in the contestant’s nomination form. So say a party named “XYZ” is contesting in all 5 constituencies, there is no possibility that all the constituencies will have its contestant on one particular number, say on top or on 4th or on last option. So how can anyone manipulate that pressing any button, the vote will be registered to only one party? The EVM does not understand your name or mine which is written on the paper against every button. It just understands two things: Either 1 or 0. This is a game of binaries. Every EVM has an micro controller which is programmed. This program is stored in an ROM which cant be erased or reprogrammed by a layman using an keyboard and a mouse. This isn’t something one sees in an Hindi Film that a person wearing glasses is shown genius pressing few keys and decoding the code lolz. No one can tell you which EVM your constituency is going to get and which to set accordingly, for the reasons I will focus on later in this blog.

After the randomisation, these EVMs are distributed to the constituencies. Every constituency has an RO or Returning Officer who has an ARO or Assistant Returning Officer to assist him. The RO then conducts another check of the received EVMs. Now, during this check, all the parties are pre intimated about the date, time and venue of the said checking. The parties or the contestants are intimated to send their representatives witness the checking of EVMs.

10% of total EVMs received by the constituency are randomly picked and brought on tables placed in a Hall to be checked. A polling booth may have averagely 800 voters. So what happens during this check? 1000 votes are registered in the name of 16 dummy candidates assigned fully on the options available on the BU. Yes, you read it right, 1000 (One Thousand) votes. this is a tiresome exercise but the hundreds of Election duty staff belonging to various Government Departments along with the representatives of political parties and candidates go through this exercise. The votes are noted while registering. And after 1000 votes, the results are displayed to the representatives or candidates present during the exercise. Isn’t picking 10% random EVMs proof of transperency? Registering 1000 votes in your own presence is illusion? This is just not a exercise which is a formality, because the representatives sign only because they are satisfied about the conduct of the exercise and the results are fair as seen practically by their own eyes.

Ok, the security layer does not end here. The poll day and the counting of votes are both just one day event but it takes over a month or two to make those days fair and transparent with the only motto of giving justice to democratic setup.

Now, only after people who withdraw, people who get disqualified on technical grounds during the scrutiny of nomination papers, people who do not get A and B form from their parties are the final contestants known. So again, till this stage even if anyone wishes to rig the whole set of EVMs it would be more stupid thing than the tales of Shekhchilli. So till this point there is absolutely no chance of rigging any EVM and neither would any notorious element even dare to put axe on his own legs.

So is rigging or tempering possible after nominations are finalised? Absolutely no. Why? Please bear me for this long blog, But I am writing it to spread the knowledge and truth, for the future of our faith in our administration. These allegations have insulted thousands of polling personnel appointed for Election duty who leave their old parents, their new born babies at home just to give best to the country. It may not be seen to a common voter what kind of duty these election personnel do or the sacrifices involved but they do it with pride and in most sincere fashion.

There are many types of seals available in today’s world, but the ECI has stick to using Paper Seals. One would say how cheap but if one thinks beyond this logic, its brilliance. Cheap things, easy to break or tear are the real safeguards. The EVMs are sealed using paper seals and paper is very easily tear able so if any attempt to break the seal will result in what? Proof of tempering! And who signs on these seals? That’s a wow thing to know. Now when you read this you will feel like suing all the political leaders who alleged EVM tempering.

I will take you to what happens on poll day to cut short this EVMopedia. Generally polling now a days starts at 8am in the morning. So an hour before the poll, all the Political Parties and Contestants are pre informed to assign a polling agent at each polling booth and they are expected to be present at least an hour before the actual polling starts. On any polling booth a voter will find few polling officers. Who are they? A presiding officer along with 3-4 Polling Officers and a peon. Everyone is assigned a duty like matching the names of voters, identifying, applying indelible ink on voter’s finger, operating the CU to grant permission to vote to the eligible voter etc. These polling personnel reach the polling station one day prior to the poll day. Why? For variety of reasons and duties. They need to setup the polling booth which are generally located at ZP or Government run schools. They need to clean the premises, they need to setup the voting compartment, they need to remove any photos or banners which represent any political leader or party that can influence the mindsets of a voter for free and fair conduct of the polls.

On the poll day, an hour before the actual poll starts, it is mandatory for the the PRO or the Presiding Officer to conduct a mock poll. A mock poll is nothing but a trial voting. This mock poll is conducted in presence of the polling agents (representatives of political parties) who are allowed to cast votes upto their satisfaction. All can vote for any contestant and as many votes as he may wish to within the stipulated time frame. After the votes are cast and are manually noted by the polling agents, the result of EVMs are displayed to everyone present. This again proves transparency of EVMs and the strength of security layer of ECI process to polls. So what happens to these votes ? are they stored in the EVM? Can they be held responsible for the outcome? NO. Why ? After the completion of Mock Poll, the EVM memory is cleared by pressing the Clear Button available on CU. Then the polling agents are again showed that against every contestants the total recorded vote count is 0 (Zero) after verification the polling agents issue a signed mock poll certificate which itself is the proof that till 7.30 am or so there was nothing to claim that the EVM was behaving in manipulated manner, after this the EVMs are again sealed. The result section of the EVM & the Clear section is sealed with signs of the present polling agents over the paper seal. (Remember this point) And this assures that the EVM is ready to go to poll.

Hush! Such a long process in which I have not mentioned many more layers of securities as it would make this look like a book and not a blog. Now the sealing of EVM usually takes upto 10-15 minutes because it is a process where paper is involved and responsibility is at stake. So there are approximately 15 minutes available for the people who claim rigging off EVMs to stand by their allegations. So what can happen in these 15 minutes? Absolutely nothing. Its their bad luck. Why? How do you program an sealed machine? How do you program an EVM in front of representatives from all political parties? How do you program an EVM where there are 4-5 polling personnel who may have their own choice of political party as an voter themselves and which is an unknown risk to everybody? And How do you program an EVM without an EPROM programmer? And how do you program hundreds of EVMs at the same time throughout the constituency and thousands throughout the state and lakhs of EVMs throughout the country within 15 minutes? And how do you imagine to carry out such a huge task with a machine which is not connected to any internet network or any LAN type or WAN type connection? A machine which doesn’t support WiFi technology. A machine which does not support any external programming. How? Arvind Kejriwal, Mayawati, Congress leaders, Akhilesh Yadav like people need to answer this. How?

Now after the poll is closed in the evening, the machine displays the total number of votes recorded and during the poll hours, the PRO has to send the total voting on his poll booth every two hours. He has been given a PRO diary which he needs to fill and sign, a 17C form, a 17A form, these all things contain the total number of votes registered, male/famale votes, the challenged votes, the proxy votes etc etc. The machine too displays the total number of recorded votes. So what is expected is on the counting day? The details of votes mentioned in the PRO’s documents which also includes the serial numbers of the CU and BU should match the tally of votes registered against each candidate.

The moral of the story is, a fantasy league is being played out in the political circle. Now you have a party in the center who was also governing in states like Punjab and Goa and if at all there was any notorious thing to be done possibly these were the most comfortable states where they themselves were in power and it would be termed daring of highest order to go and play naughty games in the den of an opposition ruled state like Uttar Pradesh. Only a fool of highest order would do it.

I still remember the era of 80s and 90s where capturing polling booths was a common phenomenon. Since the inception of EVMs the goons have lost their game. What do you do with an EVM captured? The lack of technical knowledge comes into play and they find themselves helpless so in over a decade and a half or so one has never learnt that a booth was captured. This is haunting the ones greedy of power a lot. They always come up with such half baked theories.

Technology can be hacked, not the process. I may know riding a bike, but to take control over your bike either you need to hand me over the keys of your bike or I need to break the lock. This is as simple as that. I am not handing over you the EVM and the process is a multi level secured one where you may only end up being an Abhimanyu and not a Chanakya. People talking about hardware being replaced (by breaking the seals signed by their polling agents, haha!), only one mock poll shows correct poll (two mock polls already conducted, 1st during 1000 votes and second on pol day) results and then the EVM starts manipulating votes should spare themselves because I have not gone into more technical details regarding the Electronics Hardware and the Software part to save them from the curse of millions of people who will by now be knowing the real truth. If this was not enough, I have not even mentioned any word about the strong room, PRO Diary, 17a and 17C forms, security arrangements of Strong Room, EVM preservation after results, keeping the results saved for specified number of days after the results to further save these thugs because the length of this blog is preventing me to further write anything. But I will come up with chapter wise details very soon so that people can read only what they want to know and with less length.

So I said in the start that there is only one way, assume that all the authorities right from Election Commission, to the State Commission to the DEO to the RO to the Hundreds of Polling personnels to the thousands of PROs and POs who are assigned duties along with thousands of Polling agents of rest of the parties are corrupt and are manipulated by one party which wants to win!

I urge every reader to forward this to as many friends as possible whose faith in free and fair conduct of polls have taken a beating. I think sharing knowledge is the real tool to destroy the monsters who are trying hard to shake your beliefs from the truth and are roaming in public as if they are the crusaders of anti corruption struggle while their allegations itself reveals how ugly the motives can be which would support a prone to manipulation system like ballot voting just to hide their failure and grab the chairs with the myth of swords and guns as in past.

Jai Hind! Long live the fantasy of losers who were comfortable with ballot paper manipulations. And still if you so called educated leaders have any doubts, I will give you a simple solution, read the only way possible of rigging an EVM and thoroughly scrutinize the polling agents you people appointed. They need to answer a lot because they have been witness to the FLC, the SLC the Mock Polls, they have signed the certificate, they have signed on the seal, etc.

I hope my dear friends, now you all will start cross questioning these liars.

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