23 Comments

Bela Trivedi has a bad reputation of being pro BJP. So I’m disheartened that anything much will come from there. Much like Justices Khanna and Datta dismissed the EVM / VVPAT verification case in April. Is there any way of getting a bigger bench including the CJI to hear this most important case? Vacations can be taken later!

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No way, no. Sorry. This is how the SC works.

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In the lead up to the elections, the CJI's verdicts were heartening, including in the Chandigarh mayoral elections case and the electoral bonds case. Now he seems to have gone AWOL. It's confusing and a let down from my namesake!

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He's been that way always - an occasional bone for the liberals, but leaning the other way most times. He wrote the Ayodhya judgment no?

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Agree. He has been quite opportunistic in his judgements.

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As expected: SC refuses to issue EC direction to upload voter turnout data amid LS polls - https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/sc-refuses-to-issue-ec-direction-to-upload-voter-turnout-data-amid-ls-polls/article68210509.ece

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I hope INDIA is coming up with some plans to stop this election from being stolen. This should include calling for mass mobilization of people to the streets, is that’s what it takes to get a fair result.

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Bela Trivedi has expectedly refused to direct ECI to publish booth-wise polling details. That is it for this election - unless by some unexpected chance, the swing is so much as to override all the cheating.

If at least half of what is in this article is as how it has happened, one has to admire the meticulous planning of the Sanghis. The last and most crucial step was having Bela Trivedi stay back as the only (or one of the few?) vacation judge so that this case had to end up before her.

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With 20 lakh EVMs one can capture votes of thrice the population of India. May be they are really planning for 2047.

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This is such an easy way to manipulate the election! No need for hacking, sophisticated electronics or onsite button pressing. The strongrooms are where the fate of the country gets decided. 20 lakh missing EVMs! By a rough calculation this could be about 20% of the total EVMs in use. That is a terribly large number. There must be so many people involved in this anti-national activity for it to be successful. All the way from party workers to the police to the ECI. What a blockbuster scam! And there is no way to hope this is not happening given how desperate they are to win.

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What should really give us all pause for thought is this: The story of the missing EVMs broke years ago. How did we become so blind that we didn't see it? How did we become so apathetic that we didn't react, didn't demand answers?

20 lakh EVMs cannot just go "missing". Like 70,000 kg of heroin cannot simply go "missing".

We knew -- and didn't care.

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It’s hard not to think that this is all meticulously planned. Starting from the amendment for the process to appoint ECI members….again, hard to ignore the complicity of the judiciary. The SC could not act on its own assessment that the appointment process should retain independence - if not CJI, it should be some other independent member, not a cabinet minister. Let’s see where this stops, if ever.

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Thanks, I had missed this one. Will read

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Talking of EVMs, etc., what do you think the chief architect knows? If it is 310 by the fifth phase then we are on the way to 400 paar :)

BJP crossed 310 seat mark in five phases; Opposition is struggling, says Amit Shah - https://www.thehindu.com/elections/lok-sabha/2024-lok-sabha-bjp-crossed-310-seat-mark-in-five-phases-opposition-is-struggling-says-amit-shah/article68208588.ece

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What worries me is Congress does not seem to be paying as much attention here as they should, even with the limited resources they have. DMK definitely seems to have its act together and I think stuffing ballots or tampering EVMs will most likely happen in the North in the tight races and if Congress is napping it could be a disaster... Thanks nonetheless to people like Prem and others who are highlighting the grave risks here.

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This is very depressing. At least when the state elections comes around, hope the regional parties will have the resources to stop this happening again. Don't have much hope for this election.

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Prem - Excellent post as always! Thanks for sharing Poonam Agrawal’s handle, following her now. One of her post highlighted the challenges with taking screenshots of the Voter Turnout App. As several folks responded, a journalist at her level who is doing a deep-dive on incosistencies with absolute number of votes polled should know there are several ways to record the data show on the app. A glaring miss on her part I’d say.

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You can tell her - she is quite receptive, no worries 😊

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I don’t have the stomach to read this - hopefully this will be stopped and the results reflect the true democratic preferences of the Indian public.

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Very disturbing, but thanks for taking the trouble to put this together. Wish this was being read by more people.

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Not to worry, *lots* of people are reading it, crucially including people in political circles. The emails keep getting circulated. Plus, I have passed this on to contacts across parties

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Oh that's great to know 👍

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