Confusion of Section 49-O

Long back I got a mail from one of my friends, saying that there is a Section 49-O in the Indian constitution that empowers the voter to declare to the poll booth officer that he does not want to vote to any of the candidates, after properly identifying himself, and getting his finger marked with the Ink.

The poll booth officer has to record it in a form called Form 17. While counting, if the votes recorded in form 17 is greater than the maximum votes received by the winning candidate, then it is deemed that all the candidates are rejected by that particular electorate and, all of them are disqualified to contest in the re-election from that electorate.

What a powerful tool! Why did no one tell us about this so far ? We have been independent for the past 60+ years. Constitution was put in way back isn't it?

After a bit of research on the net, I figured, that our constitution does not have any such Section! For that matter, our constitution does not have Sections at all!!!!!

Constitution of India is made of "Articles". (As of today, thats my understanding, By no means, I claim to be an expert)

Don't despair, this is not a hoax but a minor misunderstanding.

Here is the excerpt of Section 49(o) of 'Conduct of Election Rules 1961'

49-O. Elector deciding not to vote.-If an elector, after his electoral roll number has been duly entered in the register of voters in Form-17A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon as required under sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to record his vote, a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in Form 17A by the presiding officer and the signature or thumb impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark.

Here is the link that tells what the poll booth officer needs to do in such scenario. In case you decide to do this, please know that you are well within your rights to do so, and what the officer is supposed to is detailed in the Hand book of the Presiding Officer.

http://archive.eci.gov.in/handbook/PRESIDING%20OFFICER.pdf

Here is the link that gives the complete text of "THE CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS RULES, 1961"
http://lawmin.nic.in/ld/subord/cer1.htm

Can you imagine the power of this ? All the eternal cribbers who claim that they don't vote, because they are not happy with the candidates can actually go to the booth and register their voice!
The candidates will wake up to the fact that the 60% of the people who don't vote cant be taken lightly!
Adds teeth to the bite!

Now before we go into an euphoric state, lets face the facts, do you actually think that you can go to the booth and tell the officer that you don't want to vote, and actually walk out of the booth? Would'nt the agents from the candidates know that you did this ? Will they let you walk ?

I can hear you ask, hey but my ballot was supposed to be secret is'nt it ?

Answer is yes, it is. Even Supreme Court can not ask you to reveal who did you vote for! So how the hell could this be used ?

Same question asked by The Election Commission, the one aspect of Indian democracy that has shown some back bone.

Excerpt from the Recommendations of the electoral reforms by the Election Commission of India, to the Government of India.

7. Negative / neutral voting

The Commission has received proposals from a very large number of individuals and organizations that there should be provision enabling a voter to reject all the candidates in the constituency if he does not find them suitable. In the voting using the conventional ballot paper and ballot boxes, an elector can drop the ballot paper without marking his vote against any of the candidates, if he chooses so. However, in the voting using the Electronic Voting Machines, such a facility is not available to the voter. Although, Rule 49 O of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 provides that an elector may refuse to vote after he has been identified and necessary entries made in the Register of Electors and the marked copy of the electoral roll, the secrecy of voting is not protected here inasmuch as the polling officials and the polling agents in the polling station get to know about the decision of such a voter.
The Commission recommends that the law should be amended to specifically provide for negative / neutral voting. For this purpose, Rules 22 and 49B of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 may be suitably amended adding a proviso that in the ballot paper and the particulars on the ballot unit, in the column relating to name of candidates, after the entry relating to the last candidate, there shall be a column “None of the above” , to enable a voter to reject all the candidates, if he chooses so. Such a proposal was earlier made by the Commission in 2001 (vide letter dated 10.12.2001).
(A petition by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties seeking such a provision filed at the time of the recent general elections is pending before the Hon’ble Supreme Court)

The complete proposal can be read from the following link:

http://www.eci.gov.in/Press/current/PN_030804.pdf


Now, the question begs itself, what is the current status ? What decision has been made to implement this recommendation ?
If there has not been a decision, why it has not been taken ? What are the blocks that are being faced? What is stopping the Hon'ble Supreme Court to arrive at a conclusion?

If a decision has been made, where can we get the information ?

Will RTI help?

Political Rambling

I see a pattern emerging in the behavior of Indians and particularly Indian politicians.

There is the growing attitude among the politicians, all the MLA’s MP’s ministers, governments, that they are above all, and above law. There is a tremendous vehemence that comes out, when they are questioned.

That brings the question, Are the politicians are god’s that don’t like to be questioned?

Politicians get involved every thing that they come across. Be it religion, cast, cricket, movies, education etc.

The way I look at it, if something is popular, and if you happen to be a politician, then do something, or say something to screw it up.

Actors and actresses have huge popularity, alright, make statement, condemn some one, and even try to control some aspects of their life. Examples, Rajinikanth Vs. Ramadoss, Amir Khan Vs BJP, Amitab Bachan Vs Congress the list goes on.

Cricket is religion. The gods of the masses, could not tolerate the idea that something is getting more attention than them, our beloved MP’s come up with all possible ridiculous statements, so that they uphold and condemn the team and the coach, go way out of their way to justify their interference. I can’t understand, why MP’s will discuss a sport in the parliament!! Ok if they do it in the canteen over chai, just like all the other workers. If I sit and discuss cricket @ my office, my manager will throw me out of job!!! With unemployment soaring, inflation rising, when our farmers are getting affected by genetically engineered seeds and food grains, when the neighboring states don’t share the country’s natural resources, when we have female infanticide, where there are umpteen social injustice handed down to people, our elected representatives have spent a day arguing over cricket in the parliament. I don’t think MP’s get paid to spend their time on irrelevant issues. They have a country to run!! As a humble citizen who happens to be sensitive towards his fellow countrymen, I have only one request, leave the sport as a sport, and don’t make it a game!

That brings me to another point. Are politicians beyond scrutiny? Are politicians not accountable? I cannot agree that the people will judge their performance and people will judge them at the elections. I guess, our people don’t have the capability to judge the candidate based on their performance, where as, we go by what cast, what community, what section, what intersection, what faction, what religion, what language, etc.

The education sector is very popular. How can it be? Lets remove CET, Lets kick out imposing English, Hindi, and any other language that is not a regional language.

I shudder to think, 20 years down the line, our current students in primary school graduate with relatively questionable English skill, and analytical skills, (since the only time when the students start learning analytical skills, since by hearting and vomiting the text books on to the exam papers does not help the CET) will be competing with the better English speaking Chinese, who already have good analytical skills, and better infrastructure which we cannot beat in the next 15 years (assuming we started working on our infrastructure last year).

Politician’s take on canceling CET is, “rural areas don’t have enough infrastructure to tutor them”. Building infrastructure, and enhancing and empowering them are hard work, and takes investment, political will. Sorry, we are in hart “Indians”. We go only by short cuts. So the problem is CET, not the lack of infra structure. We banish it.

That brings me to another questions, do we deserve democracy?
I can’t help, but relate it to Muhammad Bin Tuglak. Cho Ramasamy’s masterpiece political satire.

A full cup

On a cold winter night, me and my cousin whom I met after three long years, sat down and were having a chat. We used to argue and discuss lots of issues during the summers holidays that we spent together at Thanjavur.

This was probably the first time after our marriages to our respective wifes and have had a son, that we had a heated debate on issues that each of us held close to our hearts. That is India and the current affairs back home.

The season was different, the location was not Thanjavur, it was London, but still we were going about the debate the same way we used to when we were in school.

At a point, as a metaphor I used the “Your cup is full” a very famous Zen story. It goes saying that you cannot add fresh tea to a already full tea cup. Basically you have to have an empty cup to hold tea, there by implying that, you need to have an empty mind, a mind that is not burdened with thoughts already in order to hold new thoughts. I was telling my cousin that one has to empty his cup to hold fresh tea.

He shot back, saying that no you don’t need to empty your cup, just get a new cup! To me, That was a very refreshing thought. Not only you retain the old tea, by that way, you gained new tea as well.
Yet another time, we were reminded of our inherent difference in the way one thinks.

Impact of reservation on Indian Cricket

Indian sports ministry has announced new reservation policy for cricket selection, cricket umpiring, cricket commentry and cricket viewing.
The policy will be in lines with the formula proposed by HRD mininstry.
To provide equal opportunity to Open Quota, the cricket team size will be increased from 15 member team to 20 member team, and if still agitation continues, they will increase the playing number from 11 to 14.

If a SC/ST batsman gets out, then he gets to bat again.
If a OBC batsman, or muslim batsman, or christian batsman gets out, then in the next innings he gets to play two times.
If a SC/ST bowler gets a batsman of foreign origin out, then the batsman, the runner and the next batsman are diclared out.
If a OBC bowler, or muslim bowler, or christian bowler gets some one out, both the batsman and the non striker shall be declared out.

The captaincy will be on rotation basis. The percentages of matches in which a specific category player becomes a captain will be derived from the formula proposed by HRD. If any of the category does not get to captain the side, then number of matches played shall be increased.

Only 15% of open category is allowed to watch cricket match.

Reservation agenda of Congress

Congress has announced that it will reserve the number of MLA and MP seats based on the new reservation policy. What it means to the party is,

30% of the seats will be reserved for Gandhi family members. Also 50% of the executive position will be reserved for Gandhi family and 50% will be reserved for Nehru family.
30% of the seats will be reserved for Muslims, christians and OBCs
5% for dalits
5% for st and sc
Remaining 30% will be open for FC, Sikhs, Budhists (dalits who converted to buddhism also are eligible), parsis and all other Sects.

Congress president position will be reserved for sonia gandhi.

Say No To Reservation

Nothing disgusts me more than Reservation.

Its not the idea of reservation that I am revolted against. Its the way it is implemented.

Reservation for all practical purposes was just one of the several measures proposed to enforce social justice.

As usual, we being true Indians, who would take the shortest path, and the path that does not make you sweat, a path that offers least resistance, we got hung up on Reservation.

Lets not forget, as long as there is going to be a disproportionate haves and have not’s, we are going to face this problem.

Every one is going to want, what is perceived as a good stuff, and they will want it NOW.

Lets not translate progress = reservation.
Neither we shall translate reservation = non merit.

Nothing will make me more happy than, to see My country offering equal opportunity to all.

Nothing will make me more sad than to see, reverse discrimination being flaunted as social justice. That only shows that, if you have numbers by your side, what you do is right. Once upon a time, there was this cast(s) that were in power because they had the numbers by their side They did some thing wrong. To set that right, now the cast(s) that is in power because they are having the numbers by their side, are doing another wrong, by persuing reverse discrimination.

I am scared to think, if every one realizes this, and starts increasing their numbers to stay in power, will we still be living in a civilized society ?

We are a mature society, lets not waste our time in arguing if reservation is right or wrong, Lets say Yes to progress, and summon the courage and show some character, have the balls to find out the means to achieve progress, and for a change, lets stop behaving like selfish, insensitive pricks and try to elevate our existence to a place where we can proudly say,

One for all & All for One.

Jai Hind !!!

The G'z den: Translation...New York Nagaram...

Try this ::
The G'z den: Translation...New York Nagaram...

Awareness....The only way for improvement

If i am able to influence a single person to reach a higher level of awareness,
I shall die in peace.