Kejriwal and EVM tampering

For the elections in UP among other states, AAP claims the polls were rigged with the EVM (electronic voting machines) and they even had one of their nerdy MLA to build up a mock EVM and demonstrate in the Delhi assembly as to how it can be hacked. I was very keen to understand the modus operandi and did watch the video on NDTV. For starters media got it wrong, he never said swap the motherboard. His contention is “there is a code that can be programmed to any EVM that will make sure all votes balloted will be counted in favor of one party only and no others”, he further goes to say “depending on where in the ballot list the party to be favored is listed the code will be different” and to quote his own words “tampering happens on election day after 10:00am and code will be entered by one of the party workers and not 2 days before when the EVM’s are mock tested in front of all contesting parties” .

I appreciate the MLA taking his time to build a mock EVM (sad, he didn’t get a loaner from election commission) and his effort and eloquence with which he explained the whole process. I am sure this is just a hoax and here is my data to prove it.

Assuming all above said is true, let’s take UP elections there were 403 seats and close to 2095 candidates from 20 odd parties contesting. For the whole of UP, there were 306 polling HQ’s and each had an average 400 or so polling booths and if I assume 5 EVM per polling booth it would be a total of 612,000 EVM to be tampered with.

So, I would need at a minimum 500000 (assuming some will vote multiple times) men/women (registered to vote) who are extremely disciplined, trusted and can be handed the code to enter to each EVM to be tampered. Again from the MLA’s own words the code is different depending on the serial order of your party on the ballot box and hence I cannot blanket distribute a code for all of them. So, we would need a minimum of 100-200 different numbers to be circulated among these folks.

For sake of argument, any party needs to win half the seats to be in majority. That could cut down the requirement to 310,000 add to that the collusion with the election officers in each polling booths and the hierarchy needed to maintain this many people in line and to expect not a single one of them come out to the media or threaten to come out on media. 

Are we kidding ourselves, even the Indian army cannot handle this kind of massive effort stealthily. One can argue the election happened in phases even then the number of people required to pull off a scam like this is truly mind boggling, I don’t understand why no one in the media is raising this question? 

What is the alternative

Every day I open the online portals of news papers like Times of India, NDTV, Tehelka and so on. I find articles again and again repeating why Modi is a bad choice, lets look at them one by one

• His model of development is fake: Are my friends who live and visited Gujarat and also this article in Forbes about agricultural development in Gujarat wrong and only the congress and AAP are to be believed?
• He is a fascist, I don’t even know what this means
• He is for crony capitalism, I thought more and more industries are moving to Gujarat including precious TATA Nano project from West Bengal to Gujarat
• The infamous Gujarat riots of 2002: come on guys. With supreme court and number of special investigative teams not able to find him guilty. Why should we believe you? are you guys claiming yourselves above the supreme court of India? Also, if you have proof go to the court and prove him guilty and hang him or send him to jail.
• The encounters of Ishraat Jahaan : Luckily nobody has brought this up and the one portal that was beating drums with this one (Tehelka) has gone cold right after the arrest of Tarun Tejpal and resignation of Shoma Chaudhary. Even here, I am yet to see the CBI implicating Modi or Amit Shah. 
• He stands for Hindutva: we don’t have a problem if some one says “I am true to Islam or in Hindi mein sacha musalman hoon” or if a Christian says “ we all are true Sunday church going christians” but we always and invariably have trouble to call ourselves Hindus and we stand behind it as though our religion is some sort of untouchable and to be vary of.

Despite all these, lets for a moment say we believe you and don’t want to vote for Modi and BJP. So what’s your alternative

1. Rahul Gandhi? – Pappu or Shahzada who can’t even answer questions to a TV journalist and give the power back to commit more scams. I think I am tired of this part,
2. Mulayam Singh Yadav? – the one who says boys are boys and rapes happen?
3. AAP Kejriwal – he claims he did a sacrifice by quitting as CM of Delhi but I for one fail to understand it and considering he resigned in 49 days don’t have faith that we will stick longer than 6 months if made PM
4. Jayalalitha? – if we want to have 1re for lunch and dinner all over India then here is the candidate.

I don’t know others who are contesting for the PM ship.

Republican platform analyzed - my 2 cents

Why do I get the feeling that Republicans this time are running on a very weak platform. I think I know and here it is

• Their energy policy unveiled by Mitt Romney, only talks about drilling and more drilling and oil and more oil. What about natural gas?, what about renewable sources? or for that matter Nuclear energy?. For me the focus is too narrow and drilling more and more is not the only solution.
• They talk doing the economy more good but don’t highlight what they would be doing differently then what it is right now, lower taxes and reduced borrowing costs, do you have anything else to offer?
• Reduced government spending by cutting more welfare programs and schools but increase in military spending is it?, because last I checked the latest 3 wars were started by republican presidents (father and son duo).
• I am sick and tired of the abortion debate and I am also sick of what is considered forced pregnancy vs other forms. I wonder what part of government spending does this account for. Why not let states choose what they want to implement and be done with it.
• Their platform of “we built it” and  rallying around for a whole day in the convention sounds like “Joe the plumber” deal from last elections. Grow up guys, context or no context of what the president said, one can only flourish when there is a stable government, good infrastructure and security in the society. If all it took was hard work to be prosperous then why not invest in countries like Sudan or Somalia?
• The health care reform, this is one thing I am not sure. But again, I heard the owner of Papa Johns Pizza said it would cost him an average of $0.14/pizza to implement health care. Will I as a customer notice a $0.14 increase in my pizza cost?
• Immigration policy is one other area, where I do not have a clear opinion towards one way or the other.