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Current Affairs 8th
December 2017 - Important Points
·
Marriage
Bill with same-sex passed by - Australian parliament
·
International
Civil Aviation Day observed globally on - 7th December 2017
Marriage
Bill with same-sex passed by -
Australian parliament
To allow the same-sex marriage, the Australian Parliament
voted for same-sex marriage bill with maximum votes, following a bitter
and divisive talk settled by the government polling voters in a much-criticised
ballot survey that powerfully endorsed the alteration.
With this acceptance of the bill, the definition of marriage has from simply
between a man and a woman to “a joining of 2 people” excluding all others.
The same sex marriage will be a legal right for its residents.
The bill proceeded with a majority that wasn’t challenged, however, 5-members
submitted their opposition to the bill.
It is noteworthy to know that the Senate had passed the same bill last week
with 43 votes in favour and 12 votes in against. After royal consent and
other regulations, the law will expect to come into existence in about a
month, with the 1st weddings supposed about a month later.
Freedom of speech
The same-sex marriage bill will safeguard freedoms of speech and religion for
gay-marriage challengers were all refused, though those matters may be
considered later.
The government has formed a committee to study how to safeguard religious
freedoms once gay-wedding is a reality in Australia.
The same-sex marriage bill facilitates religious organizations like churches
and others to boycott gay marriage without disturbing Australian
anti-discrimination laws.
Gay marriage
·
Australia
began a national postal survey in November which required an amendment to the
marriage definition.
·
62%
of Australian voters who took part in the government-commissioned
postal voting, approved this marriage .
·
However,
the United Nations Human Rights Committee had took the ballot survey “an unnecessary
and divisive public opinion poll.”
International
Civil Aviation Day observed globally on - 7th December 2017
International Civil Aviation Day was celebrated on 7th
December 2017 with the topic ‘Working Together to Ensure No Country is
Left Behind’.
The moto behind the day is to help generate and fortify worldwide awareness of
the significance of international civil aviation to the social and economic
development of States and of the important role of the International
Civil Aviation Organization in supporting States to cooperate and
understand a truly global quick transit network at the service of all
humanity.
Key Highlights
·
The
present theme was nominated by the International Civil Aviation Organization
council for a period of 4 years from 2015 to 2018.
·
Every
5 years, coinciding with ICAO anniversaries like 2014, 2019, 2024 and 2029, the
ICAO Council initiates a special anniversary topic for International Civil
Aviation Day.
·
However,
between these anniversary years, the Council spokespersons select a single
topic for the all 4-year intervening period.
·
The
campaign spotlight ICAO’s efforts to help States in implementing ICAO Standards
and Recommended Practices.
·
The
focus of the work is to support ensure that SARP execution is better harmonized
globally so that all states have entry to the significant socio-economic
benefits of secure and reliable air transport and can address protection,
security and emissions-related matters.
Did you know?
·
In
1944, members from 54 countries meet in Chicago, USA and signed the Convention
on International Civil Aviation, also famously known as the ‘Chicago
Convention’.
·
The
International Civil Aviation Day was formed in 1994 as a part of ICAO's
50th anniversary movements.
·
In
1996, the UN General Assembly officially identified 7 December as International
Civil Aviation Day in the UN system.
GST opens up a lot of data for policymaking
Context:
The Chief Statistician of India
speaks of the economy, the meaning of the new series of GDP data, and the need
to wait for the impact of demonetisation to unfold.
What has been the impact of
restocking on the growth of the manufacturing sector in Q2?
During
the period just before the GST was launched and the Q1 estimates, firms were
clearing inventory because of the issues involved with the tax treatment of
goods produced prior to the GST rollout and selling products manufactured
pre-GST in the post-GST regime.
The
only statistical evidence that is available is in the company filings which
were made available for Q1. There, the change in stock figures was sharply
negative. In manufacturing companies, the change in stocks figure is negative
for Q2 as well.
Most
companies draw down their inventories during the festive season and maintain an
inventory balance in the slack season, partly to smooth production out.
Factory output recorded a sharp rebound in August to touch a
nine-month-high growth of 4.3 per cent during the month against a downward
revised 0.9 per cent growth recorded in July, according to data released by the
Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The
surge in industrial production in August was led by the 3.1 per cent expansion
in the manufacturing sector, primarily as restocking of manufactured items
picked up steam after the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and
prior to the festive season.
While
the impact of post-GST restocking may have started to fade, inventory building
prior to the festive season is likely to have bolstered manufacturing growth.
What more can be done to
capture data of the informal sector?
The
informal sector is defined as that part of the economy where the establishment
does not maintain regular accounts. It is informal because it is not subject to
most of the traditional ways in which you can capture data.
The
informal sector consists of all unincorporated private enterprises owned by
individuals or households engaged in the sale and production of goods and
services operated on a proprietary or partnership basis and with less than 10
total workers.
GST
will certainly capture a lot more monthly data. Formally, if you look at the
GST form, every producer of a good or service makes his payment and also gives
some details about the production which is subject to tax. From that,
conclusions can be drawn.
But, even
with GST, you are not going to get the informal sector in that sense because
the entities who will be filing this regular monthly return will be the
larger companies, not the informal sector.
Insofar
as the smaller companies are concerned, some things will be possible with the
data from the composition scheme data, but it won’t be as granular as you
get in the non-composition scheme GST data.
But
for the informal sector, the principle source of data is through
establishment surveys. Regular establishment surveys, as recommended
by the taskforce under [Arvind] Panagariya, will help here.
Composition
scheme under GST:
Goods
and Services Tax has brought in a new regime of business compliance in India.
Large organizations have the requisite resources and expertise to address these
requirements. On the flip side, many start-ups and Small and Medium Enterprises
(SMEs) may struggle to comply with these provisions. To resolve such scenarios,
the government has introduced Composition Scheme under GST. When opting for the Composition Scheme under GST, a taxpayer will be required to file summarized returns on a
quarterly basis, instead of three monthly returns (as applicable for normal
businesses).
During
23rd GST Council Meeting, threshold for composition scheme has been increased to 1.5 Cr.
Does GST opens up more data
for policymaking?
GST
opens up a lot.
§ In
addition to aggregates, we will also get data on inter-State transactions which
were previously not available.
§ This
will give us a much better picture of a spatial spread of economic
activity.
§ Earlier
it was assumed that when manufacturing has picked up, it has picked up
uniformly all over India. What GST will allow us to do is get a spatial
perspective on this.
§ We
may well find that the pickup has taken place in X band of States and not in Y
band. That sort of information will be very useful to the policy establishment
when they start looking at GST data more closely.
With more than three
quarters worth of data, can you now estimate the effect of demonetisation?
To
quantify what demonetisation did or did not do, we would need to do a proper
exercise where we would have a counterfactual compared to the
post-demonetisation exercise. Statistically, that will not happen for some time
because it will need long enough time series to generate counterfactuals and do
the comparison.
It
is important to note that all that demonetisation constituted was less than a
two quarter period in which there was a currency squeeze. By and large, large
entities did not show much of an impact, as revealed in corporate filings.
Then
everybody said that this will be taking place in the informal sector. Not
because there was any data for it, but because there must be an effect, and if
it’s not in the formal sector, it must be in the informal sector. Fair enough.
But the problem is that the informal sector is certainly cash dependent but it
is also relationship dependent.
The
demonetisation effect has been overblown insofar as the negative effect is
concerned on account of neglect of this channel of credit. Further, the
demonetisation story is more complicated than just the cash change story. There
is a larger narrative hidden behind it in trying to promote digital
transactions. What those impacts are going to be, we are still trying to see.
What you do see is that the trajectory of digital transactions has changed.
Since the release of the
new series of GDP data, the government has received criticism regarding the
back series of the data sets using the new computation methods. By when can we
expect this to be released?
The
Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) gave us a much bigger picture of the
corporate structure.
The
earlier data that we had about the corporate structure is what we had from the
listed companies.
The
problem we face is of using the longer series of data on listed companies and
deriving a growth pattern for the full corporate structure from it. This is
analytically a challenging exercise.
GST
is going to give us a database about the economy which is qualitatively very
different from anything we had in the past. It will give us, for example, a
transactional relationship across the country which we did not have earlier. We
will be able to build it into our GDP compilations and improve its quality
enormously. But for somebody who asks for a back series on this methodology,
the answer is not going to be easy.
This
is something that it is important to recognise. When you modernise a
statistical system and bring in new ways of capturing data which did not exist
in the past, not simply updates of the old data, the problem of backward
projection is much more difficult. This is something that time-series
economists will have to live with.
How worried should one be
about the Centre’s fiscal deficit numbers?
Recent
CGA report says that the fiscal deficit is 96% of the total. Many economist,
jumped to all sorts of conclusions which may not be true in totality.
Because, Government
preponed the Budget calendar to allow government expenditure to start from
April 1. There is enough evidence to suggest that that did happen. The Q1
government expenditure compared to last year was much better.
Therefore
one would expect that by the end of Q2, the average government expenditure
level would be higher than what it was last year.
Many
expenditure management committees have pointed out that the earlier tendency of
delayed bunching expenditure in the last quarter is very bad for both the
quality of expenditure and fiscal management.
There
were a number of recommendations about how the government should better manage
its expenditure so as tominimise the amount of expenditure that takes place in
the last quarter and last month.
One
consequence of this is that, during the year, the fiscal deficit is going
to rise because the revenue profile has not changed due to this manipulation of
budget dates.
The
government has made some efforts to push the revenue profile back by changing
the advance tax rules but those effects will be small. By and large, the
revenue profile would remain the same as last year but the expenditure profile
has changed, so the logical implication is that the fiscal deficit will rise at
this stage.
This
country will be the new Member of Wassenaar Arrangement - India
•
India festival recognized by UNESCO as India’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of
Humanity – Kumbh Mela
•
This country recently passed same-sex marriage bill - Australia
•
Armed Forces Flag Day is celebrated every year in India on - 7 December
•
Person of the Year 2017 as per the Time magazine - The Silence Breakers
•
BR Ambedkar International Centre was recently launched in - New Delhi
•
This country will host the 46th Congress of the International Hockey Federation
- India
•
Person who resigned as National Sports Observer over conict
of Interest issue following the resignation of Mary Kom - Sushil Kumar
•
US President Donald Trump recognised this place as the capital of Israel - Jerusalem
•
This person will head the 3-member committee constituted by the National
Commission on Minorities to give minority status to Hindus in 8 states - George
Kurien
Indian
culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and
Architecture from ancient to modern times.
Kumbh
Mela
The Intergovernmental Committee
for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage under UNESCO has
inscribed ´KumbhMela´ on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural
Heritage of Humanity during its 12th session being held at Jeju, South Korea.
This inscription is the third in two years following the inscriptions of ´Yoga´ and ´Nouroz´ in December.
About Kumbh Mela:
Kumbh Mela is the largest
peaceful congregation of pilgrims on earth. The festival, held in Allahabad,
Haridwar, Ujjain and Nasik, represents a syncretic set of rituals related to
worship and ritual cleansing in holy rivers in India. As a religious festival,
the tolerance and inclusiveness that Kumbh Mela demonstrates are especially
valuable for the contemporary world.
What is intangible cultural heritage?
The UNESCO Convention for
Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage, adopted in 2003, defines
intangible cultural heritage as the practices, representations, expressions as
well as knowledge and skills that communities, groups and, in some cases,
individuals recognise as part of their cultural heritage.
Government policies and
interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of
their design and implementation.
Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance
Bill 2017
Context:
The Financial Resolution and
Deposit Insurance Bill, 2017 (FRDI Bill), was introduced in the Lok Sabha on
August 11, 2017. The bill is presently under consideration of the Joint
Committee of Parliament. The Joint Committee is consulting all the stakeholders
on the provisions of the FRDI Bill. The committee is now set to invite the RBI
governor Urjit Patel to brief the members. It is noteworthy that the bill was
opposed by the bank unions who have also requested the Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley to withdraw this legislation.
About the FRDI Bill:
The Bill would provide for a
comprehensive resolution framework for specified financial sector entities to
deal with bankruptcy situation in banks, insurance companies and financial
sector entities.
§ The Bill when enacted, will
pave the way for setting up of the Resolution Corporation. It will also result
in the repealing of the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation Act,
1961 to transfer the deposit insurance powers and responsibilities to the
Resolution Corporation.
§ The Resolution Corporation
would protect the stability and resilience of the financial system; protecting
the consumers of covered obligations up to a reasonable limit; and protecting
public funds, to the extent possible.
§ It would lead to repeal or
amendment of resolution-related provisions in sectoral Acts as listed in
Schedules of the Bill. The proposed Bill complements the Code by providing a
resolution framework for the financial sector.
Merits of Financial Resolution and Deposit
Insurance Bill, 2017:
§ The Financial Resolution and
Deposit Insurance Bill, 2017 seeks to give comfort to the consumers of
financial service providers in financial distress. It also aims to inculcate
discipline among financial service providers in the event of financial crises
by limiting the use of public money to bail out distressed entities.
§ It would help in maintaining
financial stability in the economy by ensuring adequate preventive measures,
while at the same time providing the necessary instruments for dealing with an
event of crisis.
§ The Bill aims to strengthen and
streamline the current framework of deposit insurance for the benefit of a
large number of retail depositors.
§ The Bill seeks to decrease the
time and costs involved in resolving distressed financial entities.
Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections
of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these
schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and bodies constituted for the
protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.
Universal social security payments
Context:
Labour ministry’s proposal for
universal social security payments is facing resistance from other government
sections because such a programme would raise overall wage costs.
What’s the concern?
Central ministries and the
states have increasingly been hiring contract workers to save on costs as
minimum wages are not mandatory in such cases. However, a social security
programme would require the employers of contract workers to help pay for it.
India’s total workforce stands
at 450 million, out of which a little over 10% is in the organised sector,
enjoying social security of some sort.
Contract workers in the
country:
The government appoints
contract workers in three categories. First, for work of a routine nature such
as housekeeping, maintenance and data entry that’s bundled and entrusted to
staffing agencies. Second, contractual appointments for select posts,
particularly those that need high professional skills. The third category
comprises retired government employees whose skills and expertise acquired during
their tenure in government are found useful.
According to Seventh Pay
Commission data, the union government is one of the biggest users of temporary
staff or contract employees, including scheme workers, and spends around Rs 300
crore a year on their wages. The scheme workers refer to the six million who
are employed in flagship social sector programmes.
‘Draft code on Social Security and Welfare’:
The Centre, in March 2017,
proposed a labour code on social security which will provide social security
cover to the entire workforce in the country, including self-employed and
agricultural workers.
§ According to the code, even
households employing domestic help will also have contribute towards schemes
including provident fund and gratuity for the worker. Factories employing even
a single worker will have to contribute towards social security benefits, as
per the proposal.
§ Every working person in the
country will be covered under the social security code whether she belongs to
the organised sector or the unorganised sector. For the first time, cover to
agricultural workers is being provided along with self-employed people. The
target is to provide social security benefits to 45 crore workers.
§ The proposed code seeks to
cover “any factory, any mine, any plantation, any shop, charitable
organisations” and all establishments or households employing casual,
part-time, fixed-term, informal, apprentice, domestic and home-based workers.
All such establishments or factories will be liable to pay compensation if they
fail to contribute towards the social security schemes of the workers.
§ The total contribution to be
made by employers towards Employees’ Provident Fund and Employees’ State
Insurance Scheme is proposed to be capped at 30% of the workers’ income. At
present, employers contribute 31.5% of the workers’ income towards these
schemes.
§ According to the proposed code,
self-employed workers will contribute 20% of their monthly income towards
provident fund, pension and other related schemes. Self-employed workers will
also include “a person who takes land on share cropping or any other form of
rent, and tills the same using his own or family members’ labour.”
§ All the entities – whether
factories or households – will have to register their workers through an
Aadhaar-based registration system, according to another proposal, and
self-employer workers will be required to register themselves.
§ A National Social Security
Council, chaired by the Prime Minister, has been proposed to streamline and
make policy on social security schemes related to all the Ministries. Other
members would include: Finance Minister, Labour Minister, Health and Family
Welfare Minister along with employer and employees’ representatives.
Bilateral, regional and global
groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.
Wassenaar Arrangement
Context:
In a significant development,
elite export control regime Wassenaar Arrangement (WA) has decided to admit
India as its new member, which is expected to raise New Delhi’s stature in the
field of non-proliferation besides helping it acquire critical technologies.
The decision was taken at the recently held plenary meeting of the grouping in
Vienna.
About Wassenaar arrangement:
The Wassenaar Arrangement on
Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies,
commonly known as the Wassenaar Arrangement, is a multilateral export control
regime established to ensure regional and international security and stability
promoting transparency in transfer of arms and dual-use goods and technologies.
What do the participating nations do? The participating nations
make sure that the export of ammunition does not contribute to the development
or enhancement of military capabilities undermining regional security. In order
to achieve the aim of stable defence deals, the participatory nations apply
export controls to all items listed in the List of Dual-Use Goods and
Technologies and the Munitions List.
How will this membership help India?
§ India’s entry into the export
control regime would enhance its credentials in the field of non-proliferation
despite not being a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
§ The WA membership is also
expected to build up a strong case for India’s entry into the 48-member Nuclear
Suppliers Group (NSG).
§ Further, since India has low
reserves of uranium required for its civil nuclear energy programmes, the
country entry to the Export Control regimes will help secure the supply of
nuclear fuel more easily.
Money
laundering..
Benami Act
Context:
The Income-Tax Department is
scrutinizing all unexplained credits and investments in personal as well as
corporate income-tax filings and is looking to invoke the Benami Act in many
cases. Unexplained credits, in the books of a company or bank accounts of
individuals, have so far been treated as black money, attracting a higher tax
of up to 80%.
About the Benami Act:
The Benami Transactions
(Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016, designed to curb black money and passed by
parliament in August, came into effect on November 1, 2016. The new law amends
the 1988 Benami Transactions Act.
Highlights of the Act:
§ The law provides for up to
seven years’ imprisonment and fine for those indulging in such transactions.
§ The law prohibits recovery of
the property held benami from benamdar by the real owner. As per the Act,
properties held benami are liable for confiscation by the government, without
payment of compensation.
§ An appellate mechanism has been
provided under the act, in the form of an adjudicating authority and appellate
tribunal. According to the government, the four authorities who will conduct
inquiries or investigations are the Initiating Officer, Approving Authority,
Administrator and Adjudicating Authority.
What is benami transaction?
A benami transaction is one
where a property is held by one person and the amount for it is paid by another
person. Therefore, in a benami transaction, the name of the person who paid the
money is not mentioned. Directly or indirectly, the benami transaction is done
to benefit the one who pays.
Security
challenges and their management in border areas; linkages of organized crime
with terrorism.
Border Protection Grid (BPG)
Context:
The Union Home Minister
recently highlighted the importance of having Border Protection Grid (BPG) in
the country. The concept was highlighted during the recently held meeting of
the Chief Ministers of the Indo-Bangladesh Border (IBB) States, in Kolkata.
About BPG:
What is it?
Border Protection Grid (BPG) is
a multi-pronged and foolproof mechanism to secure border. The grid will
comprise of various elements namely physical barriers, non-physical barriers,
surveillance system, Intelligence agencies, State Police, BSF and other State
and Central agencies.
Supervision: BPG will be
supervised by a State level Standing Committee under the Chairmanship of
respective Chief Secretaries.
Need for BPG:
Border security is important to
facilitate legitimate trade and commerce between the countries. India has
friendly relations with Bangladesh and there is a need to facilitate genuine
trade and legitimate cross-border movement of people while curbing radicalization,
illegal migration, and smuggling of cattle, fake Indian currency notes and
drugs etc. BPG will ensure greater help for the States in the overall border
security.
Secure borders are also
necessary to prevent entry of illegal migrants some of whom have links with
extremist groups for furthering anti-national activities with ulterior motives
and posing threat to internal security.
Background:
The Indo-Bangladesh Border
covering 5 states of India including Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura and
West Bengal is 4096 km long. So far in 3006 km border security infrastructure
of fence, roads, floodlights and border out posts (BOPs) are in place and works
in the remaining 1090 km are yet to be started. Out of this, 684 km will be
secured with fence and the related infrastructure, and the balance 406 km with
the non-physical barriers. Although bulk of the infrastructure is in place or
under construction, construction in some parts is yet to commence mainly due to
land acquisition issues.
Facts for Prelims:
SAICON 2017:
What
is it?
It is the First International
Conference on Sports Medicine and Sports Sciences. It is being held in New
Delhi. Organized by Sports Authority of India, the 3-day conference is being
attended by about 1000 national and international delegates.
It aims to promote scientific
temperament in the country and inspire students, researchers and educationists
alike to take up sports science and research to the next level.
Time person of the year 2017:
Time has chosen its 2017 Person
of the Year: the Silence Breakers, the women and men who have come forward to
shed light on sexual
harassment and abuse in
America. “The Silence Breakers” is the vanguard of a global movement by
millions of women to share their stories of sexual harassment and abuse.
Is there a case for a relook at EVMs?
Context:
The issue of credibility of
EVMs has become quite complicated with different parties raising serious
objections about the functioning of the machines.
The controversy surrounding the
electronic voting machine (EVM) tampering was reignited after the Congress and
the Aam Aadmi Party raised the issue with the Election Commission.
Some leaders have gone to the
extent of saying that the machines are being tampered with in order to favour
the ruling party.
An open challenge was given by
EC to prove allegations of EVM tampering.
However, in the recent local
elections in U.P, Not only has the reliability of the machines been questioned,
so has the credibility of the EC.
What is an EVM and how exactly does it work?
EVMs or electronic voting
machines provide the voter with a button for each choice which is connected by
a cable to an electronic ballot box.
An EVM consists of two units–control
unit and balloting unit–and these two are connected by a five-meter
cable. When a voter presses a button against the candidate he/she wishes
to vote for, the machine locks itself.
This EVM can be opened
only with a new ballot number. This way, EVMs ensure that one person gets
to vote only once.
When were EVMs first used in elections?
The use of EVM started back in
1982 Kerala Assembly elections. Prior to this only ballot papers and ballot
boxes were allowed.
Production and Design
There are only two Indian PSUs
(Bharat Electronic Limited (BEL), Electronics Corporation of Indian Limited
(ECIL)) that manufacture EVM machines. The secret source code is only
accessible to a few engineers. Engineers who are in the factory have no clue
about the constituency wise deployment of the machine.
Why is India using EVMs?
Holding free, fair, and fast
elections is a cornerstone of democracy and is guaranteed by the Constitution.
Introduction of EVMs by due process of consultation and constitutional
amendment in the 1980s and ’90s was a step in the right direction to further
strengthen the democratic process in India, which is by far the largest
democracy in the world with more than 800 million voters.
Using EVMs means doing away
with paper ballots, and in turn, saving millions of trees from being cut.
§ It makes the entire
process of voting simpler-a click on the button and your vote is registered.
§ EVMs, in the long-run,
have turned out to be cost-effective as well.
§ These machines don’t require
electricity and run on batteries.
§ At the same time, the EVMs are
lighter and portable compared to the huge ballot boxes.
§ And most importantly, EVMs
have made the vote-counting process much faster, delivering results in
hours as against manual counting of votes which could take days.
VVPAT comes into the picture
After concerns were raised on
whether EVMs are tamper-proof, the Election Commission appointed a committee to
look into the possibility of linking the EVMs to a paper trail machine to
show voters a slip with the party symbol for which they have voted. As a
result, voters can immediately check if their vote is cast for the person/party
of their choice.
The Voter-Verified Paper Audit
Trail (VVPAT) was first used in 2013 in Nagaland’s Noksen Assembly
constituency.
Questions are raised on EVMs, Yet again
The EC has steadfastly
maintained that the machines are perfect and that the software has been
examined and re-examined by international experts.
On the other, some IIT-trained
engineers have shown how the machines can actually be manipulated by remote
devices, or by inserting pre-programmed chips, or by selectively tampering with
only 20% of them to secure a simple majority. So, only a few constituencies
will have those “chosen” machines and that would be enough to tilt the balance
in favour of the ruling party.
The EC says these allegations
are outrageous because the whole system and process have been shown to
detractors and the matter is settled.
Yet it appears far from
settled. In the recent local elections in U.P., the BJP won more in places
where there were machines without the concomitant paper trail, and non-BJP
parties won more where there were only ballot papers. Not only has the
reliability of the machines been questioned, so has the credibility of the EC.
It is for the first time in
India’s electoral history that the EC has been suspected of bias in favour of a
ruling party.
Arguments that are in favour of Paper Ballot
Following arguments question
the EVM system and support Paper ballot.
§ We invariably come across
reports of malfunctioning EVMs.
§ The only way an EVM can be
tampered with is by physically opening it up and replacing the chipset inside
it. The chipset used is non-reprogrammable and data is ‘burnt’ into the device.
So, today it is possible to replace the chip if we have access to EVMs
§ On the VVPAT (voter verifiable
paper audit trail) front too, there are reports of malfunctioning. Also,
as per the rules, paper ballots and VVPAT machines are not counted until
the Returning Officer asks for it.
§ The outcome of the recent Uttar
Pradesh civic polls suggests that tampering could be happening.
§ Oldest democracy, US, still
uses paper ballot system for the presidential elections as Americans feel safer
in using paper ballots as compared to electronic voting machines.
However, there are problems of
paper ballot.
§ Transporting them and guarding
them is a problem.
§ Ballot boxes can be captured.
Arguments in support of significance of EVMs
§ EVMs led to a significant
decline in electoral fraud, particularly in politically sensitive States as
rigging elections became extremely expensive.
§ Research has shown a link
between luminosity and growth rate, suggesting that EVMs contribute to
development.
§ EVMs empowered those from the
weaker sections of society who were victims of political or electoral violence.
In particular, women, lower castes, and those less educated were more likely to
participate in the electoral process when EVMs were used.
§ EVMs made the electoral process
more competitive.
§ There has been a significant
decline in the incidence of re-election, and winning margins have reduced
dramatically.
However, this does not imply
that we lower our guards. The very idea of democracy is based on trust and
belief in the fairness of the electoral process where the losing party lives to
fight another day. Any erosion of this trust and belief would be an
irreversible process with an uncertain outcome.
What is the Way forward?
The competitive electoral process
checks the self-interest of political leaders in their quest for power.
Our institutions, the EC, and
the courts also share the responsibility to check the powers of popularly
elected leaders to ensure that democracy does not become a mobocracy.
Even though many arguments
favour introduction of EVMs was a step in the right direction, it is not the
final destination. If EVMs are manipulated, all the votes could be captured
with a greater degree of sophistication to favour one party. Tampering
with EVMs would make booth capturing much easier. Besides, time and again the
Election Commission (EC) has said that the machines cannot be hacked into as
they are designed in such a manner so as to make that impossible.
To overcome the dangers of
manipulation, we must remain sceptical and accept the reality that the EVM
issue is not simple. The fact that the issue is complicated necessitates a
measure of caution in its application.
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