Netas, lawyers, activists give thumbs up to Lost Votes drive

They came. They spoke. And for once, they all concurred. Most of the time, at least.
Top politicians, activists and lawyers, speaking at two panel discussions woven around TOI's 'Lost Votes' campaign, concurred that a mechanism needs to be worked out to ensure that the lost votes are claimed. Some felt that using modern technology was the best way ahead, others differed, not surprising at a time when the usage of EVMs is the recurrent subject of a political debate.

"Twenty-eight crore votes is a substantive number at stake," said Congress leader Manish Tewari. He said it is not very difficult to frame a solution around the problem. "I also do think there is going to be a major difficulty in parliament in arriving at a consensus on this issue," he said in the panel discussion titled, 'Why can't India have absentee voting?'.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, 280 million enrolled voters did not cast their ballot for several reasons, especially domestic migration.

Former MP Jay Panda said TOI was the appropriate platform to push for voters' engagement in the world's largest democracy. "Real democracy is where everyone is eligible can vote. And here we have eligible people not voting," he told senior Times Now journalist Navika Kumar anchoring the discussion.

Some may not have voted for reasons other than mobility, Panda felt. "Some also didn't vote due to apathy. We need to overcome apathy and we need to overcome the hurdles that the migrant population face," he said adding, "Technology is the answer."

Senior advocate and Rajya Sabha member KTS Tulsi had a similar view. "If we can do digital banking, why can't we do digital voting?... India is an IT superpower. Why should we not use technology (to solve the problem)?" he asked.

RJD MP Manoj Jha felt that use of technology needs to be blended with other factors since the substantial number of poorer migrants would not be comfortable with technology. "There is a need to evolve some kind of innovative mechanism for them," he said.

In the second panel discussion on 'How Can We Make Absentee Voting work in India', BJP leader GVL Narasimha Rao ruled out "online voting" as an option, arguing how it runs the risk of manipulation and hacking in the absence of a paper trail.

Extending the postal ballot facility to migrant voters who want to vote from the place where they are, rather than where they are registered, was also ruled out as a practical option by former legal advisor to the EC SK Mendiratta.

In a discussion moderated by Faye D'Souza of Mirror Now, he stated that with a mere 14-day gap between finalisation of candidates' list and polling, the window was too short to accommodate two-way transmission of postal ballots.

(From left) Former legal adviser to Election Commission SK Mendiratta, Tara Krishnaswamy, senior advocate Supreme Court C Aryama Sundaram, moderator Faye D’souza, BJP MP G V L Narasimha Rao, professor Trilochan Sastry and TOI editor Shankar Raghuraman during another panel discussion

Mendiratta too believes online voting would not a viable option, even though EC is competent to pull it off. This, he said, was due to lack of trust in technological solutions, with even EVMs being questioned time and again.

Association for Democratic Reforms founder Trilochan Sastry argued that just because the systems were faulty, a citizen could not be denied his "constitutional" right to vote.

After founder of NGO Shakti, Tara Krishnaswamy, pointed out how thousands of paper relating to applications by voters in Whitefield, Bangalore, seeking registration were lost by the electoral officers, former additional solicitor general C Aryama Sundaram said that while such inefficiencies needed to be redressed, "you cannot challenge the whole system".

On how a Bill was brought to confer voting rights on NRIs but not domestic migrants, Narasimha Rao said that unlike migrant voters, who could register at the place after they move, NRIs did not have the option of shifting their vote.

While endorsing the need to enable migrant and displaced electors to vote from a place other than where they are registered, a system followed in some countries as well as some US states, Sundaram warned that creating a fool-proof system for India was a huge challenge given the vast size of its electorate.