[Reader-list] Delay breeds corruption, EPIC cards and corruption, role of election commission in breeding corruption.

[Rajen Uppinangadi]

Dear Taha,

    this epic drama has its own repurcussions in the society, to continue
further with yesterdays experience at polling booth, average voting as per
the election commission was just about 50 percent, but this election
commission or media does not talk about 10 lakh voters in four
parliamentary constituencies alone, of Bangalore, - north, south, central
and rural, not been able to vote inspite of having the voters id, or epic
cards. To my horror, I saw a bunch of women, all burqa clad, protesting
against their name being not in the list, when I talked to them, they told
me that they did not expect Jaffer Sharief to contest, so they did not
"renew" their names.! In another area, dalits were protesting against not
being allowed to vote, they were soo drunk, that when they were told that
they had to go to the next booth, not the present one, their leaders
demanded that they should be allowed to vote in the booth of their choice.!

   Then there were a few , who were working couples, who were not present
when verification of the presence was done and hence eliminated from the
list, even when they has epic with them.! Thus even if many wanted to vote,
some wanted at the polling of their coice booth, some were mistakes from the
officials of the election commission. Efficiency quotient of this commission
is positively negative.

  Now as to your observations about two individuals, Prakash Javdekar and
Priety Zinta, I do not know if they hve any personal interests to promote
the NIC but for sure, I will not be surprised if they have, because it is
big money, for anyone. Moot point is like laws are needed for the society,
NIC is necessity for all citizens, but with so much staff sitting idle in
government offices, putting their coats on the chairs, wasting time in
canteens, it is better if they work for the NIC than out source the work.?
Laws are there, but are often misused but that does not mean we should
banish all laws. Same goes for NIC, the election commission has to work for
the issue as they have all the computers, printers, scanners and lamination
m/cs, why should they tender it to outsource ? As we have seen, public works
dept, has all types of engineers, but not for working on the bridge or a
road, but in nexus to kickbacks with private contractors.! Why should we
have so many posts of engineers if they can't work on the job, only to
prepare tender documents.?

On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 8:42 AM, Taha Mehmood
<2tahamehmood at googlemail.com>wrote:

> Dear Rajen
>
> Thank you for taking the trouble of articulating your experiences with
> regards to EPIC and writing a detail post. I think for all us in India, it
> is a matter of utmost concern to not only make our voices heard but also
> actively debate about the ongoing proposal of the central government to
> introduce the national identity card. You point out the malaise of kickbacks
> and so on while procuring an EPIC card.
>
> One of my point of concern has been with logistics of carrying out NID
> exercise. All the state literature, policy papers etc has tried to sell the
> idea of MNIC since last ten years. Which, to some, may look like a glorified
> PR exercise.
>
> Why is it that of all the  political parties, the BJP is so interested in
> this issue, while others have remained mum?  I think amongst the BJP's
> politicians, I have observed Prakesh Jadveker voice the need for a national
> identity card, the maximum number of times, I wonder why the BJP, which is
> otherwise so quick to ask for a debate on issues of grave national
> importance is not even hinting for a dialogue on this most crucial
> citizenship document, which is a matter of concern to all Indians.
>
> In the similar vein, I find it extremely curious to find Preity Zinta talk
> about MNIC on various public platforms. She has voiced her concerns on at
> least three occasions in last three years, which makes it all the more
> intriguing. Because if she is so convinced about the curative powers of MNIC
> that past three years, she has not changed her position and if she believes
> that such a technology would benefit an entire nation then, surely like any
> responsible citizen, she must have critically looked at some literature on
> identity cards which must have convinced her totally. What I find ironical
> is that- any critical literature on identity documents is bound to inform us
> about the untenability of such a document. Because conceptually the issue of
> individual identity is unresolved.
>
> Therefore I wonder, Why is it that of all the bollywood starlets, she is
> the sole one voicing a concern about the need to introduce MNIC?  Whose
> interests is she representing? Whose voice is she airing?
>
> Arguments like illegal immigration will be curbed, PDS will be distributed
> swiftly, efficiently etc has been doled by politicians and state departments
> of all hues to make a case for a technology which is shrouded in fundamental
> conceptual mystery.
>
>  I think it is a matter of utmost importance for us to press for a dialogue
> and a public debate on this issue. EPIC was introduced in early nineties.
> Before EPIC voter ID cards were manual documents. The argument for EPIC was
> similar to the one which is peddled for MINC, that with a photo it would
> easier to find a bogus voter and so on, like with MNIC, the government
> officials claim that it would help weed out citizen from a non citizen. This
> claim is far more easier said than done. Because in order to distribute a
> MNIC card, one has to establish beyond the pale of reasonable doubt that a
> person is eligible to be a citizen; in order to do so, one has to identify
> the person as that particular person. Now there are a lot of people out
> there who will have fake identity documents, who will filter through this
> bureaucratic maze, like there would perhaps hundreds of thousands of real
> Indians who will not have the requisite papers to authenticate a claim that
> they are in fact who the say they are.
>
> In such a condition, I do not know how viable or valid would the
> introduction of a new technology would be? On the other hand, when we know
> that the election commission of India has, after eighteen years  since the
> introduction of EPIC, bought a little over a two thirds of eligible voters
> into the fold of legibility, then I don't understand, why cannot the
> responsibility of validating the citizenship of our entire nation, be not
> given to EC?
>
>  Why is there so much of haste to commit and distribute public monies of
> the tune of hundreds of thousands of crores to these chip manufacturing
> companies?
>
> I think, we need more public dialogue on this issue.
>
> Would we not, for instance, benefit as aware citizens, if we were know the
> nature of the networks which exists between the bureaucracy, business
> houses, technology related media and politicians? Are these invisible
> networks not pushing for policy, for contracts, and for the re-distribution
> of public monies in the name of peddling plastic tokens of citizenship?
>
> Regards
>
> Taha
>