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? 

Few observations from Mr. Kejriwal’s interview

If one starts to write about AAP there is no end, they are just too colorful and wonderful. Mr. Kejriwal, I appreciate you for your dedication, your logical arguments and the way you stand up for your colleagues and defend them at all costs.

I am one of the those who saw your interview on CNN-IBN and also a similar toned one on NDTV (I know, I am jobless). All hail your achievements in the last 3 weeks and lets see what documents you now have in hand against congress that you didn’t get with RTI before and how you will make them sorry for their act.

That said, you kept saying “people will decide what to do, people will run the government and they will decide where the money to be spent and you won’t contest the parliament election but the people will”, in case you are not aware there is an English word for it called “Refrendum” and your esteemed colleague Mr. Bhushan said the same thing but you said what ever Mr. Bhushan said is his personal opinion, you totally disagree with the same and not that’s not the stance of you or the party. Now, I am confused what do you stand for?

Second, we need accountability, suspend the few police who did not do the duty and all these crimes will stop. I agree on the accountability but do you believe we have enough police officers for the population and enough resources with them to prevent all this kind of crimes?

Third, you vehemently defended your colleague Mr. Bharati’s act. Fine that shows you stand by your troops. But few simple things arise in my mind, what was the intent in going there in the middle of the night? was that the only time your minister had? mind you he has been receiving complaints for last few months (before he became minister). if your minister only took the PCR van with him, who called the media?, if according to your comment there were lot of women and drugs in the plain sight, why didn’t any of the folks who complained recorded the same on their camera phone or some such device? Your argument of “they refused blood test”, even in USA to make employment decisions all they need is urine test and not blood test.

Fourth, the drug and prostitution rings cannot run without police help. Agreed on this point, but in the same breath, I for one find it hard to believe that a bunch of Nigerians are able to run such a racket without the help of the local people (Indians, Aam Aadmi), do you agree?.

Fifth, you are now the chief minister of Delhi and please respect the post and stop making allegations like “local police pay bribes to the Union Home Minister”, you even named him by name. If you have proof please come out and publish the same and defame the guy but not without proof. 

Sixth, you comment on police ran away from Mr. Bharati and anything could have happened to him. Last I remember it was you who said no security needed and want to be accessible to people and so on. So, are you saying your government needs police protection now? 

AAP is wonderful, they keep my blog active

Is AAP making a joke of itself

I know I know, I am the one who wrote the post that said “Case in Favor of Mr. Kejriwal”. But in the last few days the acts that the AAP has done seems to make me think otherwise. Here are the incidents

No FDI in retail because people will lose jobs if this happens. Really, do you really believe in this crap Mr. Kejriwal. Please don’t compare US and Mexico to India to make your case for this.

Law minister ordering the police to raid a place which he claims to be a brothel and a drug peddlers place, and he is angry that police did not act according to his whims and fancy to top this Mr. K supports and defends his ministers actions. Really, I am pinching myself to see if I am not dreaming.

The comment from Mr. Prashant Bhushan on referendum in Maoist infected areas about removing the paramilitary forces, again who are we kidding.

The comment by one Mr. Binny for not being offered a ministry in the AAP government in Delhi. Mr. K please keep a tight leash on your party and its members, just because you are Aam Aadmi doesn’t mean there should be anarchy within. 

A foreign woman tourist gets attacked and raped in Delhi and the AAP just like its predecessor/supporter congress blames the way Delhi police is organized (central vs state). Really, don’t you have some other original ideas other than aping your predecessors?

The AAP reminds me of a line from the book Freedom at Midnight in which our esteemed Prime Minister Nehru requests Lord Mount Batten to take control of India and see the violence during partition is quelled, the reason being Mr. Nehru says that he and his fellow colleagues have been freedom fighters and half their life went in fighting and don’t have any experience in governance. 

So, I think AAP may prove to be a revolution that had all wonderful aims and life looked lot rosier when being on other side of the fence and blaming the system. But when you are in the seat of power and have the authority to change, it seems to fizzle out.

In short, they seem like bunch of novices and Delhi is their learning ground. Hope it doesn’t become costly for Delhi and India in general. 

Case for Mr. Kejriwal

I resisted myself from writing this article but some how I couldn’t resist putting my points across.

To Mr. Kejriwal’s credit, he is the champion of Right to Information Act (RTI) and he along with Anna Hazare started a campaign against corruption and in some sense the whole country united behind the cause. When the political parties did not heed much he took the most democratic way possible and launched his own party called the Aam Admi Party (AAP). In the process he is accused of delineating Anna Hazare and other activists whose charisma he is accused of using for his benefits. On his launching the party, I think the choice was simple, either be on the sidelines and keep protesting and hope someday our elected leaders would listen or become the leader and show how its done. Most everybody was with him till then.

Now after Delhi elections where in which his party won majority of the seats but not enough to form a government and he formed a government with the external support from Congress (against whose corruption he rallied against). Here many people believe he betrayed, I take a different view.

If AAP hadn’t agreed to form a party then it would have been a hung government in Delhi and a set of re-elections. Considering the inflation and cost of re-election is it really justified to do the same? Now that he has become the CM I think the first priority would be the good transparent governance with no corruption, that’s where I believe we need to give him some time to see how it will work. Life looks lot different when you are in seat of power vs being an activist, the best example I can quote is of President Obama, if people remember he ran first time in 2008 on the notion of “closing Guantanamo prison within a year”, now its been  5 years and we are still struggling to find out how to go about it.

On the other hand I am not ready to give national reins to his hand, for one he and his cadre haven’t proved a thing about anything and Delhi is like their learning ground, will wait 5 or so years before I take that decision. Also, I am worried about his cronies like Prashant Bhushan and his take on Kashmir.

In closing, my take is lets not pit him and Mr. Modi against each other as that’s what the congress government wants and lets wait and watch to see what wonders he can do in Delhi. On a related note, back in 2011 Mr. Kejriwal along with others once shared the podium with Sri Sri and if Sri Sri has faith in him then I for sure am willing to wait and see.