By the Editor: Siddharth Sehgal

Failure is a fact of life some people accept it gracefully, learn from it and try to remedy the cause yet there are those who run away from it, point fingers and blame failure to causes other than themselves. It can be an ego problem, burden or expectations or something else but still it’s very much a part of human nature to say “it’s not my fault”.

Something similar happened in recent elections where the shock of loss has shaken the roots of many political stalwarts. Behenji was first to face the nation after the dismal performance but she somehow couldn’t comprehend that BJP would reduce her party to margins. She couldn’t accept the fact that people have seen that her speech and actions do not go hand in hand and they are fed-up of being used as a vote bank. So she came to conclusion that it must be because of EVMs that vote of dalit, minority and other backward classes didn’t went for her candidates, it’s the EVM that favored BJP despite the fact that EVMs were used in 2007 elections when she came to power with a clear majority. Arvind Kejriwal, who is a graduate of IIT and probably angry at everything in this country, also seem to believe that technical tampering had costed him the mandate of the people of Punjab. Congress leader Ajay Maken is also voicing to go back to the old system of using ballot papers which can be burned, dowsed and compromised. This is what happens when delusions of grandeur, over confidence and over boosted ego hit the hard reality of real life. Loss is bitter but it can be a medicine if taken with intent to improve.

Now coming back to EVMs, these machines are made in India with technology, hardware and software developed by some of the best scientists and engineers working in this field under the guidelines and directions of Election Commission of India. Continuously improved and redesigned with more stringent needs of transparency, these machines do not have an internet connection; they are kept under high security before elections and are assigned at random to a particular election booth at the last moment. A mock ballot is done before the representatives of government and the contesting parties after which a certification is issued to use these machines in the voting process. If a candidate thinks that elections were not conducted in a fair manner he can appeal to Election Commission before the results comes out. People can also read the reports on ECI’s website or watch the interviews of Mr. K.G.Rao, advisor to the Election Comission and Mr. M.S.Gill, former commissioner of Election Commission who introduced the EVMs in the election process. I’d rather trust a renowned, trusted official of an autonomous, independent agency rather than a corrupt, hypocrite politician.

These politicians should introspect about the reasons of their loss, the causes created by their own actions, false promises and lies. Throwing dirt at our democratic institutions will only erode credibility of these politicians but credibility is the reason they lost at the first place.