Electing Government through Online Voting! Why not? explicitfacts.com/2019/01/04/online-voting-in-lok-sabha-elections-why-not/ explicitfacts
January 4, 2019
Statue of Unity. On 31 Oct 2018, India was amazed to know great facts about Statue of Unity, special mention to its whooping total cost of Rs. 3000 Crores!!!!! We just wondered that if Government OF India, can think about this feat, then what stops them from funding online elections for 2019 (May be!) and 2024? In order to understand the logic please read on. Manual Voting Issues
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An Indian citizen of age 18 years and above is eligible to caste his vote. Now few points worth consideration:(a) Graduation. Most of the people on attaining 18 years of age, move out of their hometowns in for getting admissions in college. Due to this most of them find it difficult to caste their vote in their their home town. (b) Job Search. The issue mentioned at (a) is also applicable for people who move out of their hometown in search of jobs. Everyone settles in city or town where one gets better opportunities and lifestyle. (c) Post Marital Shift. After marriage, most of the time girls shift to either with in-laws house or where husband works. In both the cases their voter registration card cannot make them eligible to vote in their new city. (d) Old is not Gold. Senior citizens who are totally incapable to move are face problems while moving on their own, find it very difficult to move around for voting. Also, some elderly people require lot of help so as to cast their vote, which makes the whole process very complicated. (e) Labourers. Daily wage labourers, who cannot afford to miss a single day of work because every day’s wage ensure food availability that day. (f) Contractual Issues. Contract workers in private firms who get salary on daily basis, will prefer to let go their opportunity to choose their Government. (g) Private Jobs. Private firms with headquarters in foreign countries doesn’t give preference to allow their offices to remain closed for one day do that their staff can go for voting.
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(h) Official Nomads. In India, we have million of Government officials, keep shifting from one place to another on transfers, through out their service, until they retire, along with their full family. Making it extremely difficult of self and family to cast their vote. (i) Hospital Blues. At any point of time, all hospitals are filled with patients admitted for various ailments or surgeries. They also find it very difficult to move out to cast their vote. (j) NRIs. Due to brain drain, most of country’s talent settles abroad and never contribute with LS elections. In case a person is NRI and maintains India’s citizenship then he or she should also get opportunity to cast their votes. (k) Extra Day. In the view of holiday declaration on election’s day, sometimes people actually prefers to enjoy it as holiday. (l) Inertia. Last but not the least, which many people will never confess, due to the hard work required to go to poll both, stand in line, wait for one’s turn and then caste their vote, requires actual hard work and sometimes consumes hours. Thanks to Google and other social media sites, everything is accessible so fast that people are actually losing out the patience factor. If we actually get down to roots, we will realise that there are lot of other categories of people who due to various reasons find it extremely difficult or in worst case scenario, impossible to caste their vote in D Day. After reading the factors mentioned above, a child can also confirm that actual population participating in Elections is just a portion of total population of the country. We fill not put up figures, because that will not be accurate and will change every moment. Lost Vote. To cater for above mentioned issues, Times of India started a campaign called “Lost Vote”, so as to boost the process of “Mobile Votes” or votes by post. Will this process help? Yes. Definitely. Logistics Requirements of Elections All of us are aware to the fact that Logistic aspect for conducting Lok Sabha Elections is always strained due to various reasons mentioned below:(a) Manpower. Elections are manpower intense evolution, which mandates Election Commission staff and government officials deputed on duty during election day. (b) Polling Booths. Next we require polling booth in all places for conducting elections.
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(c) Security. In the view of all type of anti social activities like booth capturing, violence and proxy voting, security needs to be enhanced to next level. During elections, one tenth of population becomes soldiers, (who are ready to kill anyone found opposing their part y) and polling booths become local war fields. So, there come the requirement of Security Forces. During clashes many precious lives of security personnel and civilians are lost. For what? Only God knows! (d) Funds. Amount of money required to link all dots mentioned above is humongous and need no further explanation. (e) Clueless Selection. When we go for voting then most of us are clueless, about important information regarding all candidate fighting elections. Like Income tax returns, cash property held, educational qualifications, criminal background etc. We all just react like rats. Decisions are mostly based on TV reports and perceptions regarding political parties floating around us. Bribe on D Day: Point to Ponder . During elections, lot of cash, booze and promises start flowing like in all possible directions? From where money is managed? Is it sponsored by Big Business Houses, who don’t mind paying up millions during elections, so as to recover Billions for next five years? From where does that Billion comes from? From tax payers’ hard earned money? This cycle of spending of Millions for election campaign followed by recovery in Billions after successful win of affiliated political party keep going round and round, every five years. Also we need to understand that a poor, who is just bothered about managing his and family’s three basic meals, will not hesitate to take bribe on D Day just to caste his vote in the favout of culprits. But a person who is well off financially and socially, will never go after small amount of bribe paid on D Day. He will surely appreciate benefits of intelligent politicians forming intelligent government over the culprits displaying small amount of bribe. Online Lok Sabha Elections Why we cannot think of having online voting philosophy in Lok Sabha elections?
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Information Technology. Due to advancement of technology, social media, internet, smartphone technology, following issues which merit attention:(a) Banking on Fingertip. All banking services have converted form manual services to online portal services, where u can transfer money and use other services with the help of smartphones or laptop/ computers. In the view of involvement of customer’s hard earned money, the mobile app and website follows best available data security measure. (b) Shopping. Shopping has also turned online with the development of mobile apps like Amazon and Flipkart. This facility is not only hardware and software intensive, but the delivery sector is also very labour intensive. It can be very comfortably assumed that Amazon alone must be providing services to customers around the world, equal to total population of India actually participating in Lok Sabha elections. (c) Online Food! Ordering of food has turned itself online and is running very successfully. Now one just need to feel hungry and should have a smartphone with internet connectivity and BOOM!Within few minutes of that though, someone few Kilometers away starts cooking for you and some other soul gets ready with his vehicle for delivery. (d) Stock Market. Stock market has turned all his services into online mechanism. (e) Online Tutorials. With online facilities like Baiju and Toprr a student just need to think of a problem and boom, solution is available to him online.
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Expertise. India is the largest producers of Engineers. IITs produce thousands of engineers, who after completion of their degree, shift abroad and work for Foreign firms, who happen to sell the technology, developed by Indians, in multiple times of actual cost. Aadhaar Card Aadhaar is a 12 digit unique identity number that can be obtained by the residents of India, based on their biometric and geographic data. The data is collected by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), a statuary authority established in Jnauary 2009 by then UPA II goverment of India, under the jurisdiction fo the Ministyr of Electronic and Information Technology, following the provisions of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidiaries, benefits and services) Act 2016. Aadhaar is the world’s largest bio-metric ID system and happens to be “the most sophisticated ID programme in the world”. Considered a proof of residence and not a proof of citizenship, Aadhaar does not itself grant any rights to domicile in India. Additional Points (a) In the view of various subsidies offered with aadhaar registration during its initial phase, most of the population has got their aadhaar card made and still counting. (b) Aadhaar card is issued to citizens of India, post proper verification and registration of retina scan finger print scan. It is to be appreciated that retina and finger impressions are unique for every person. So there is no chance of duplication. Therefore, its almost impossible for produce fake aadhaar card or issues two aadhaar numbers to a same person. (c) The aadhaar card is developed in the form of database and not connected to internet or any form of social media. 6/11
(d) Aadhaar card is registered with a unique mobile number and email id and cannot be duplicated, as both of them are linked to one aadhaar number. (e) World class data security measures are being followed to safeguard aadhaar database.
(f) Even though Governments of India has already pumped in million of dollar to develop this database, but in the name of personal data security and Supreme Court’s directives to all the banks and telecom companies to stop forcing customers to produce aadhaar card for new bank account or mobile number connection it is not being optimally utilised as of now. Aadhaar Shunted. In the view of Supreme Court ruling, in September 2018, the top court upheld the validity of the Aadhaar system. In the September 2018 judgment, the Supreme Court nevertheless stipulated that the Aadhaar card is not mandatory for opening bank accounts, getting a mobile number, or being admitted to a school. Some civil liberty groups such as the Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties and the Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF) have also opposed the project over privacy concerns. This ruling has actually braked the procedure of aadhaar registration. Way Ahead All elections shall be conducted online with the help of mobile app or website.
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Logistics Targets (a) Mobile Internet. Mobile internet to be made available in every nook and corner of the country. (b) UPI. provision should be there for non smartphone users to caste vote just like UPI. (c) Data Security. Very robust data and network security to ensure zero hacking for manipulations of elections. (d) For the purpose of elections aadhaar card registration can be made mandatory for 100% population of India. (e) Hardware/ Software Wealth. One online facility like hardware and software can be generated with the help of major mobile app and website players like Facebook, Twitter, ICICI bank and HDFC banks, under strict control of government which can be used for the purpose of LS elections in 2019. (f) One Aadhaar One Vote. Each individual may be allotted one account, with aadhaar number as user id and password created by the user, post verification of mobile number and email id registered with aadhaar database of that citizen. Punching of voter id and aadhaar card details should be mandatory too complete account registration. (g) On the day of election, during the window of actual election hours, online voting can happen. (h) A person should be allowed to vote only once. Once voted through online method then his or her account should be locked.
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The above mentioned topic being a controversial issue, we acknowledge that its not a fool proof method to conduct elections. In order to develop this concept, we need to have lot of brain storming sessions between:(a) Government bodies (c) UIDAI (d) Agencies responsible for online data security. (e) Opposition parties at Lok Sabha and State Assemblies. we are sure they will have their own fears regarding this thought process. (f) Indian Institute of Technology. Advantages (a) No requirement of polling booths, government officials etc for conduct of Lok Sabha Elections. (b) No threat of Booth capturing as everything will be done online. (c) No requirement of security forces to guard polling booths. People should be able caste their vote while lying on bed. (d) In absence of manual polling, there will be no possibility of orchestrated riots, thus loss of lives. (e) Less money laundering since online voting will be most secretive procedure to conduct elections. (d) No requirement to declare election days as holidays. Online voting can be done from anywhere. Even from colleges in new cities or hospitals wards. (e) Before casting of vote, a voter shall actually see the profile of all candidates regarding income tax returns, money and property holdings, educational background, crimes committed in past etc duly certified by Election Commission of India. We are sure election commission will never allow details of a murderer or rapists to figure, on its official website or mobile app. (d) Saving of Tax Payers hard earned money. This money can be utilised in improving modern facilities like roads, education for all, cleanliness etc. (e) Common man will become more powerful and will be able to exercise their voting rights just by flicking of his fingertip (Rajnikant style?)
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(f) We can be assured that online voting will surely change the modus operandi followed during election campaign. Conclusion India is the largest Democracy in the World. Zero was invented in India. What stops us from inventing new procedure on online elections? Lets invent something revolutionary and shock the world. Or wait for the IIT alumnis to develop similar facility to conduct online voting for US President’s Election scheduled in 2024, at then buy that facility at multiple times cost of actual developmental cost.
Lot of theories have been floated around that USA made fool of the whole world regarding First Man Stepping Moon being American. But in case India develops world’s first online voting facility, then we will have to prove it with successful on ground results, by utilising this theoretical online facility in reality. We are are sure India will be able to earn Billions of Dollars, but selling this new technology. Let’s try our best and create a big dent in the World’s Election Procedures by developing WORLD’S FIRST ONLINE VOTING FACILITY. I just hope our next generation will be able to select government while munching popcorn on a couch! It’s very easy to make fool of an illiterate and poor man by buying his vote through various bribes. But it’s impossible to make fool on the fingertip, hovering right on top of mobile screen or computer keyboard, to vote for right candidate during future Lok Sabha Elections. 10/11
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