“Unka Sankalp, Vipareet Bharat”
“Sab ka Naash, Sab ka Vinaash”
DEMOCRACY is a government of the people, by the people and for the people.” That might have been true 161 years ago when Abraham Lincoln had said this during his famous Gettysburg Address. The results of assembly elections in Haryana have proved that this definition of democracy is nothing but rubbish. Modern democracy doesn’t seem to have any connection with people’s wishes.
WE, THE PEOPLE were being told all this while it was the beginning of the end for the Gujarat lobby and that Haryana would show the way for Maharashtra and Jharkhand. We saw the videos on YouTube showing scores of vacant chairs in Modi’s rallies; we heard commentators gleefully confirming that Modi’s crowds could not have been more than 5,000; we saw videos of voters confirming that this time it was the BJP v/s people; we saw famous you tubers telling us in no uncertain terms that the time had now come for the BJP to reap what it had sown – the ill treatment of champion of female wrestlers, victimization of the farming community, bankruptcy in formulating and implementing schemes for state’s development, giving state first rank in India for youth unemployment, ignoring widespread drug addiction among the youth, etc, etc.
We saw an election campaign where Modi and Shah could not be seen anywhere during the last three days. We heard Modi warning disinterested crowds about the dangers Haryana would face if Congress won the elections; we heard nobody speaking about the BJP’s achievement during the previous ten years, not even Manohar Lal Khattar or Nayab Singh Saini.
We saw Rahul Gandhi attracting mammoth crowds; we saw him getting Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Selja Kumari together on public platforms to signal the end of leadership contests and internal squabbles; we heard confident statements of Congress leaders everywhere that this time their party would sweep the elections.
Well known His Master’s voice, TV anchors predicted comfortable victory for the Congress while announcing the result of exit polls; we didn’t see even one exit poll agency predicting a BJP victory. Even Nayab Singh Saini was seen in camera admitting that he would be the one to take the whole blame if Congress won the poll.
Nayab Singh Saini’s sudden prediction that the BJP had all arrangements in place, like in Chhattisgarh, to win the elections and that on October 8 the Congress would be heard blaming the EVMs, was not taken seriously by anybody.
The unexpected defeat of the Congress has send shock-waves through almost 50% of the total Indian voters who voted for I.N.D.I.A group during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Blame games have started in Congress and I.N.D.I.A and nobody knows how these will end.
The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Vote for Democracy (VFD), both well known groups of social activists and avowed opponents of Hindutva politics, have not yet come out with their findings on Haryana results. The question that looms large in the minds of Haryana voters would be: Are the election results a gift to BJP by the EVMs and the Election Commission of India?
The EVMs are reportedly manufactured by Bharat Electronic Ltd and Electronic Corporation of India Ltd, both public sector companies under the government of India. Nine out of 11 directors in Bharat Electronic Ltd are reportedly from the BJP. The vulnerability of EVMs to manipulation is a widely accepted fact, and the refusal of the Supreme Court to investigate into this or to direct a return to ballot papers, does not prove otherwise. It is claimed by technical experts that it is possible to manipulate EVMs online without physically handling them by using codes available with the Bharat Electronic Ltd.
With nine BJP directors on the board, it should probably be possible to pressurize the company management to make the codes available to hired experts, for manipulating the EVMs. Opposition parties have not yet raised doubts about the EVMs working in this election, possibly because of the habit of the Modi-Shah government to stonewall demands for inquires or investigation.
The results of the assembly elections in Haryana are shocking and unbelievable. These have to be investigated to decide on credibility. If that is not done, it will be difficult to stop the slide of democracy into chaos and authoritarianism.
Can WE, THE PEOPLE save our democracy from degenerating further into a dictatorship?
