By Matters India Reporter

New Delhi, Aug 13, 2022: A joint conference of civil society and political parties in New Delhi August 13 resolved to fight against machine, money and media power that they say poses the gravest challenges to democracy in India.

The conference, co-organized by Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), Jan Sarokar and People First, was attended by more than 200 people and key parties such as the Indian National Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samajwadi Party, Communist Party of India, Nationalist Congress Party, Telangana Rashtra Samithi, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Rashtriya Lok Dal, Welfare Party and Swaraj India.

Deb Mukherji, who chaired the first session, spoke of the present scenario and the need for civil society and political parties to come together during these unprecedented times.

M G Devasahayam summarized the effort of the Citizens Commission on Elections which reviewed the 3M challenges to democracy by experts in India and across the world and compiled them in the form of a published book titled- ‘Electoral Democracy? An Inquiry into the fairness and integrity of Elections in India.’

Subhashis Banerji, professor of Computer Science, IIT, Delhi, presented on how Electronic Voting Machines can be manipulated and there is an urgent need to ensure verifiablity and auditability of the voting process.

Anjali Bhardwaj, co-convener of the National Campaign for Peoples’ Right to Information spoke of how the electoral bonds had opened the floodgates to unlimited anonymous big money with no information being provided to people on who is funding the parties.

Pamela Philipose, senior journalist, spoke of the urgent need to regulate fake news, propaganda and social media manipulation which was weaponized by BJP in elections.

In the second session leaders of eleven political parties spoke on the challenges posed by 3Ms and their views on the proposed resolutions. The resolutions which were unanimously passed are given at the end of the press release.

A summary of what each leader said is given below:

Digvijay Singh of the Indian National Congress expressed support for the resolutions. He said he did not trust EVMs as people couldn’t be sure where their vote went. Due to electoral bonds, people did not know where money was going and by unchecked use of money, BJP was controlling the media and in fact even funding the spread of fake news. He recounted how in many states the BJP was using money power and various agencies including ED, CBI, IT to break legislators and make governments fall and install their own.

Sitaram Yechury of CPIM said electoral bonds were smuggled in through the money bill route. He said despite multiple legal challenges to it, including one that he filed, the Supreme Court had not decided the matter even though more than 3 years had passed. He said the time has come for all political parties to join hands and start a jan Andolan to save democracy.

He said the way the Election Commission of India is functioning it’s become like the Executive Council rather than an independent Constitutional body. He said the way the media was acting as a propaganda channel for the government, suppressing the voice of the opposition is for all to see.

D Raja said the CPI was in full agreement with the resolutions and had in fact adopted similar resolutions at their recent national party congress. He said the fact that 90 percent of the bonds were transacted in the highest denomination of 10-million rupees showed that this was not being given by ordinary persons showed the control of the electoral funding was completely under corporate control. He said there is no level playing field due to money and muscle power. On the issue of EVMs, D Raja said that he himself has approached Supreme Court seeking full VVPAT count. He said civil society and parties must come together otherwise a flawed electoral democracy will lead to autocracy.

Mairajuddin Ahmed of RLD said the role of big money and criminalization has completely skewed the electoral field. He said today there is open misuse of even bureaucracy. Selling tickets for money, using criminal elements to intimidate voters is well known and documented and needs to be countered. He said such conclaves should be organised at every district in the country. He said his party fully supports the resolutions.

Jitendra Awad of NCP said his party expresses unanimous support for the resolutions. He said the fight to save democracy has to be on the streets. EVMs can be manipulated everyone knows – but where will you go for justice? The Supreme Court, the institutions are all compromised. Therefore we have to go to the court of people. Everyone saw how the BJP brought down the Maharahstra government by buying so many MLAs that they stole the whole party itself, but how do we raise a voice when no one is listening. We have to fight much more strongly and take everything to people. He said fascism is at its peak.

Suresh Reddy of TRS said no technology can be fully tamper proof and therefore any such claims of 100% error free voting must be challenged. He said even the anti defection law needs to be challenged. He said the party was in full support of the resolutions on machine, money and media power.

Danish Ali of BSP said this was a landmark meeting as it signals a historic coming together of political forces and people to save and reclaim democracy. He said the BSP was in full support of all the resolutions and will join every endeavour to take this issue to every corner of the country. He said it is imperative to fight against forces undermining India’s democracy.

Ghanshyam Tiwari of SP that when every machinery of the elections has been hijacked then how can machines remain insulated from this hijack. The fundamental principle of fair voting is that a voter should have full confidence that their vote has gone to the party they have cast it for both at the time of elections and when results are declared. He expressed full support of the party for the resolutions.

Naval Kishore of RJD said the party is committed to the resolutions and will join all efforts to tackle these distortions to electoral politics.

Ilyas of Welfare Party said the party believed that voting should happen through ballot papers and there should be proportional representation in heterogeneous societies like India. He expressed the party’s support for the repositions.

Yogendra Yadav of Swaraj India party appreciated the detailed manner in which the resolutions have been put together. He said the party fully supported all the points. He said the need was for a national effort to resist the undermining of democracy.

In the last session of the day, chaired by Aruna Roy, people from different states presented and discussed how the issues emerging from the conference can be taken forward. Nikhil Day, Thomas Franco, Rolly Shivhare, Apar Gupta, Pankti Jog, Prasanna, Dinesh Abrol, Bezwada Wilson and many others shared their views.

(The press release issued by Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), Jan Sarokar and People First.)