Editor,
Boys will be boys. Boys will make mistakes. Is that what we heard from Samajwadi Party ‘legend’ Mulayam Singh Yadav in the 21st century? Was he
campaigning for his party or for patriarchy? Any person with a rational outlook will consider such comment illogical and misogynistic. It supports violence against women and considers them ‘ dependent on the mercy of men. One interesting part to note is that these days giving controversial speeches has become a style mantra. We are yet to find out whether this is to grab publicity or whether it was actually spoken in a conscious state.
Many a times, these kind of communal and casteist speeches are heard. Hate Speech really works and nothing works like negative publicity. People may forget good things that are said and done. But negative and controversial speeches are remembered and discussed by ordinary person and even intellectuals. As if the blame game between Rahul Gandhi ( RaGa) and Narendra Modi
(NaMo) was not enough, now we can even hear of controversial speeches which would exacerbate gender discrimination. The comment was awful.
Yours etc.,
Priyanka Chakraborty,
Via email
Noise pollution
Editor,
I have recently seen the letter to the editor published in your esteemed daily with regards to the disturbing noise during the function held at Nagaland House, Nongrim Hills. Nagaland House is located just opposite Bethany Hospital, and I believe it was quite a problem and disturbance especially to the patients admitted there. This may happen only once in a while but some control mechanism to stop noise pollution especially in places located near the hospitals, should be strictly imposed. As I am working in Civil Hospital, the patients have always been very uncomfortable with the noise coming from the ground near Lady Hydari Park where different functions like mela, musical concerts etc., are held especially during festive seasons. It creates a lot of problems for the seriously ill and also those who may not be serious as well. I would therefore, request the concerned authorities to take action for the convenience of all.
Yours etc,
D. Wallang
Civil Hospital, Shillong.
EVM and tendered votes
Editor,
In the modern age of electronic voting machines one wonders what the value of a tendered vote, cast by a person whose vote has already been cast by impersonation. Will a tendered vote ever be counted?. There is no surety that the vote cast by the impostor will be deducted from the voting machine since the machine does not record the serial number of the voters according to the Electoral Roll. The EVM will not indicate as to which candidate was the illegal vote cast by impersonation. The EVM does not record the time of entry of every voter into the polling booth, the time when the voter’s name, signature etc is recorded in the Register of Voters (Form 17A). Even if a video camera records the proceedings how can it be detected which voter cast the vote of someone else by impersonation and in whose favour the vote was cast. The Election Commission may put the blame on the polling personnel for not properly scrutinizing the identity of voters but this is impossible since the polling officials cannot raise objections about the identity of a voters if the polling agents appointed by the candidates.
During counting of votes how can the legal voter be sure whether his/her vote has been accounted for? How can the illegal vote or votes be deducted from the EVM and from which candidate? In case a candidate wins by a margin of 1 vote like what happened in the general election in 2004 in the Karnataka Assembly elections how will the winner be decided? A tendered vote means that the legal voter is being given the opportunity to vote since the vote cast by impersonation is still being counted from the EVM for all candidates and if the tendered vote(s) is in favour of NOTA, it makes no difference since the impersonated vote(s) cannot be deducted from any candidate. With 100% votes recorded, if there are 10(ten) tendered votes, then the total no. of votes assigned to the polling station will be “Total Votes assigned + 10 impostors. Further with NOTA protecting the minimum votes security, these illegal votes will definitely make a difference in the total number of votes for any candidate in favour of whom the votes were cast. This will in-turn give the candidate the chance to secure the minimum total for security. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why other developed countries are not in favour of using electronic voting machines.
Yours etc.,
A Timmy Kharhujon,
Via email