NOTA - not a option

I have been wanting to write about the ‘None of the above’ option on the Electronic Voting Machines since it was mandated by Supreme Court but somehow procrastinated over it. Got to see post the elections in the 5 states dubbed ‘Semi-final to the general elections’, I just have more reasons, data, numbers and armour to back my claims.

The day Supreme Court validated the right of the electorate to reject all the candidates, all hell broke loose on social media with #NOTA being the top trending topic. People went ballistic as to how they now have a reason to visit the polling booth before of this empowerment of picking ‘none of the above’ over all the rest party symbols. All the cynics who I am pretty sure don’t even have faintest of the idea of how a polling booth looks, were singing yodels about the empowerment of the electorate it would bring about.

In fact there is nothing new about NOTA option per se. The Indian constitution had always provided us with this option of rejecting all the candidates. Remember those mail forwards regarding Section 49(O) that used to flood our inboxes whenever any election was round the corner?

For the uninitiated, Under the existing provisions of Section 49(O) of the Representation of People Act, a voter who after coming to a polling booth does not want to cast his vote, has to inform the presiding officer of his intention not to vote, who in turn would make an entry in the relevant rule book after taking the signature of the said elector. He thus would be exercising his right for not picking any of the candidates in the fray. The issue with the process besides being cumbersome was that it would reveal the identity of the voter which amounted to violation of his secret ballot entitlement. With the recent judgement the apex court just conceded that Section 49(O) in its present form was violative of the constitutional provisions guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) (Freedom of Speech and Expression) and Article 21 (Right to Liberty) and violated the concept of secret ballot. It further directed the Election Commission to start implementing NOTA button on EVMs forthwith in a phased manner and asked the Centre to render all assistance.

The Supreme Court bench in its prudence think that negative voting would foster purity and vibrancy of elections and ensure wide participation as people who are not satisfied with the candidates in the fray would also turn up to express their opinion rejecting contestants. I for once and whole heartedly disagree with this thought process of the honourable court. I do not think the empowering with option of NOTA is any a panacea towards the deep cynicism that has ingrained in some of the voters. More so I dis-agree that it’s the onus of Supreme Court to coax people out of their siestas, picnics or apathy towards the system.

Though the judgement might have been passed with noble intentions, I suspect it might end up doing more harm than good in due course. The way I look at the mind-set of the large sections of Indian electorate is that they do tend to go for the lesser evil amongst all. On most occasions we might not see the name of the person on the EVM whom we would actually want to see as our legislature but then we have gotten used to picking the best candidate among the lot; so I would believe with a tinge of hope. If I am allowed to largesse to assume that these #NOTA voters would have otherwise voted for the lesser evil, they might end up inadvertently helping the greater evil.

Very often the difference in the victory margins is so trivial, that the quantum of votes cornered by NOTA would actually turn the results topsy-turvy.  The recently concluded elections in the states of Madhya-Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Delhi had seen NOTA claiming vote percentage up to 3%. For the number-crunchers types who strictly go by the numbers and stats following is the analysis (courtesy mint): They have examined the impact of NOTA on the margins of victory which suggests there are 56 constituencies were the margin of victory less than the number of votes polled by NOTA. Of these 26 are in Madhya Pradesh, 15 in Chhattisgarh, 11 in Rajasthan and four in Delhi. Given that the Chhattisgarh assembly has 90 seats, one-sixth of all its seats were decided by a margin less than the number of votes polled by NOTA in those constituencies. In Madhya Pradesh, this proportion fell to one-tenth, and it was closer to one-twentieth in Rajasthan and Delhi. Such a huge vote share has potential to change the turn the outcome of an election in case of close contest and thereby adversely seal the faith of the AAM Aadmi for at least the next 5 years.

Offering my respects where due, contesting an election needs a lot of courage; keep aside the financial prowess as well as backing of the masses. It’s unfortunate that we have had candidates of more shady characters than none, but NOTA is no cure to it. I feel NOTA in its present form won’t coax any of the good candidates to file their nomination papers.

Another thing I feel is that NOTA will just remain as hype among few voters, especially urban and the cynics. It might see some takers during the early adoption phase but soon it will taper out left to itself. One reason for its prospective demise would be Supreme Court clarification which says the NOTA option is simply hypothetical—votes marked to “none of the above” would simply be ignored while deciding the winner and it wouldn’t matter even if over half the votes were for NOTA. This renders NOTA as nothing more than a placebo. This very clarification from SC voids its original reasoning which said having NOTA option would prompt people out of their couches. How would be selecting none of the candidates be any different for skipping the exercise the adult franchise altogether?

Ours is a participatory democracy and the zest of the system lie in people participating in its day-to-day running, directly or indirectly. Though the intent behind getting NOTA might not be flawed, its utility and relevance are still in reasonable doubt. Empowering people with such rights should be tagged along with enforcing some obligatory duties on them which would prevent its misuse. Provisions like NOTA would only be effective if you precede it with compulsory voting upon people. Needless to say it should also be provided with more teeth, which should range from calling fresh elections if NOTA garners highest vote share, and even barring the same candidates for contesting subsequent elections.

Until such amendments aren’t done, we need to keep the 5 yearly exercises to its literal meaning… let it be ‘election’, NOT A ‘rejection’.

Goan dy'Nasty' Politics

It’s that time of the year that every Goan must be looking forward to. After experiencing a tumultuous decade on the political arena in the 90's, the new millennium had dawned with relative stability. Baring a few unsuccessful attempts at toppling the government, the last five years had been uneventful; and I am saying this only in context to ‘the great political musical chair’ that we Goekars are used to. Blame it on the complex arithmetic of seats, incompatibilities of some of our political heavy-weights, the divine blessings of ‘Daam-baab’, or his turning nelson’s eye towards the misdemeanors of some cabinet colleagues, Digambar Kamat has been able to add his name to the Hall of fame of full-term chief Ministers of Goa. Quite an irony that he would find himself in the league of the visionary like Dayanand ‘Bhausaheb’ Bandodkar.

But with election dates declared, the Goans can enjoy what they have missed for past half a decade. The mad rush of the aspirants seeking tickets, their claims and counter-claims, the corner meetings and canvassing will be running thick and fast. Not to miss the ‘Chicken aani Soro’ parties and the life-size figurines of fat-bellied, gold encrusted candidates dressed in ‘political’ whites. The dangling banners off the electric poles and the giant billboards will soon be a commonplace.

But this election promises to be different. Not that the usual antics won’t be there, after all they have become an inseparable part, but the scale would be at unprecedented levels. Goa as I understand has historically always been a straight battle between two candidates (I deliberately didn’t say parties). During the period post liberation it had been dual between candidates claiming allegiance to the regional parties which were steadily replaced by the national heavy-weights. These elections promise to buck the trend and may turn out to be different, if not for any pre-poll alliance. With the other national party and the usual regional parties which mushroom only during the election times raising their heads, we can expect a multi-cornered battle. The deluge of aspirants powered by funds of their mining and construction business, often illegal, means these parties won’t be left wanting for nominees. What is most interesting to see though is that these elections may be less amongst the parties and more so an election amongst the political clans.

Not just son and daughter and brother and sister, veteran politicians are readying to field their friend, PA, son-in-law and wives (plurality intended ;)). With a single seat having the potential to turn you into a king-maker, it does harm noone to have ones kith and kin by their side when the political tug of war for the elusive CM’s chair begins. If not for the CM’s seat, they can surely land up with plump portfolios or/and the chairmanship of profiteering corporations, not to mention the power, perks and the much sought-after official white ambassadors (and often Camrys, Innovas and even Hummers too) with the red beacon.

To start with the gigantic leader and strongman (figurative too) who has been tirelessly canvassing for his daughter dear. As he likes to declare “not all of his children are interested in contesting elections”. Thankfully so, lest considering his not so small family there would have been hardly any seat left for others. Not to be left behind his brother, a sitting MLA himself, has been trying to secure his political lineage by demanding a nomination for his ‘social-worker’ son. His para-dropping his pilot son into the election fray might land him more leverage in the scheme of things post elections. And if all works in their favour, they would occupy an overtly significant 10 percent of the assembly.

Another over-ambitious first time MLA from the hinterland, who has inherited political genes from his long time politician father has been trying to up their tally in the assembly complex atop the Porvorim hillock. He has been rumoured to have been coaxing his wife to contest so as to increment their already sure-shot ‘father-son’ tally by another seat. Besides he has been getting ready his own army of toadies, some imported across parties, fuelling his juggernaut towards ‘Mahalaxmi’ at Altinho. For him, getting his foot-soldiers vindicated by the electorate might be a much less a herculean task than keeping his flock together post elections, when the poachers a.k.a horse-traders would have a field day. But until then his might emerge as the single largest ‘group’, thus propelling his chances of bringing the chief ministership back home once again.

From one former chief-minister onto other, but the game-plan doesn’t differ by much expect that this ‘patrao’ plans to field both his sons. Tainted or not, he thinks both of them have toiled enough under the 'sun' for the masses and its time for their ‘sun’ rise on the political horizon. His faith in the electorate and his confidence has prompted him to field one of the two against his bête-noire and the local strongman. Perhaps he wants to kill two birds with an arrow by adding to his number while getting rid of his nemesis.

That arch-rival is no political greenhorn though. While getting himself re-elected with a thumping margin, he has also secured another adjoining constituency for his brother to add to his political muscle. Both of them have successfully struck emotional chord with the constituent voters playing the regional party card and equating their win to the existence of their beloved party. The old guard and the party loyalists thus far have, unwittingly or no, played into their hands while trying to retain the existence and symbol of the old king of the Goa political jungle.

The other regional party, or rather its modern incarnation, hasn’t been as lucky in this regards. Virtually it has ceased to exist, but miraculously pops itself out of hibernation whenever the election commission rings its bell. Time and again, it has been used, reused, misused and abused by many mean politicians for their own good, trying to extract whatever two-bits of emotional calling it still has for a certain section of the society. It also acts as a watering hole for all those disgruntled candidates who or whose wife has been denied tickets by others. A la 'Ek Duje Ke Liye' scene at Dona-Paul, this 'smarter than fifth grader' hubby had denounced another sought after ticket at the eleventh hour, to take the plunge with his dear wife in the whirlpool of elections on this party ticket. Unfortunately for the duo while the husband was able to swim ashore, his wife wasnt able to stay afloat in the sea of ballots. Barring minor jugglery of seats I reckon this husband-wife duo are ready to sound their election bugle and also hoping this time to cross the finish line together.

Extremities do exist in life. While there are some who knock at the doors of some old party to get their ‘wedded’ wife a ticket, there are others who are floating new party entirely to provide a launch pad to his wife, wedded or not notwithstanding. This maverick has very grandiose plans to field candidates, many of them ‘wedded’ to him, throughout the length and breadth of the Goan paradise. It needs to be seen as to how many of them faithfully follow his footsteps on road to the state assembly.

With the fathers doing their bit for their wards, this matriarch wasn’t to be left too far behind in propping her son. This ‘Mummy’ of all like most of the mothers has depicted highest degree of sacrifice when she offered to bow out of her seat in love of her son. It needs to be seen whether this mother-son bonhomie would help pave way for son to become another ‘Goan protector’.

Though many have been able to field their blood relatives in the fray, the unlucky ones not bestowed with more ‘social-workers’ within the family have to look beyond. ‘Blood is thicker than water’ they say, but in politics it need not be always. While some ‘witty’ doctor who though in his sunset days of political career still seeks revival of his fortune through his son-in-law, there are also others who are willing to bet on their erstwhile personal assistant. And there are other ex-MLAs, ex-policemen, industrialists and mining barons who are all set to descend in the election ring with their kith and kin. It’s anybody’s guess how many of them will be able to walk out of it... 'triumphant'.

With the dynasties warring each other and the Alemaos, Dhavalikars, Ranes, Naiks, Pachecos and Monserrates entering the battle-field with their families en-mass, don’t get surprised if the elections results is reported by the election commission as below:

Alemaos : 4

Dhavalikars : 2

Naiks : 3

Monserrates : 2

Ranes+ : 5

Pachecos : 1

Brace Yourselves!