The Evening Wrap

16 April 2024

Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu.

Supreme Court rejects a return to paper ballots, says machines are accurate unless maligned by human bias
The Supreme Court on Tuesday disagreed with the idea of a return to paper ballots to restore the “little man’s” confidence in the electoral process, saying machines give “absolutely accurate results” unless human bias maligns them.

“Human weaknesses, including bias, may lead to a problem. Machines without human intervention would give absolutely accurate results,” Justice Sanjiv Khanna, heading a two-judge Bench, observed.

The court was open to the testing of the “actual performance” of electronic voting machines (EVMs). It said the review should be wholly based on data provided by the Election Commission, and not opinion garnered from private quarters, including polls about EVMs.

The court fixed the hearing on Thursday (April 18), on the eve of the first phase of the Lok Sabha election.

The Bench, also comprising Justice Dipankar Datta, peremptorily rejected the idea of returning to paper ballots.

“We are in our sixties… We have seen in our lives what happened when it was ballot papers. We have seen the drawbacks of the past,” Justice Khanna said.

The court was hearing separate petitions filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and by Arun Kumar Agarwal highlighting the voter’s fundamental right to information about his vote.

The petitioner clarified they were not attributing malice to the EVMs. Their only issue was that the EVM system did not provide voters with confirmation or confidence about their votes. The voters’ interface was with a button. They had no way to know that the machine had accurately recorded their votes. The VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machine showed the slip only for the blink of an eye, seven seconds, after the vote was cast.

“I am not talking about the urbane voter in this courtroom. I am talking about the queues of multitudes who are hustled into the polling booths to press a button and hustled out, not knowing what really happened. Leaving aside the foibles about the past regarding ballot papers, that system had at least given the little man confidence that he had put his little cross across the right party symbol,” senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, for Mr. Agarwal, submitted.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan said the voter leaves the booth with no sense of accuracy.

“I am unable to confirm my vote. My physical contact with my vote has gone completely,” Mr. Sankaranarayanan said.

Mr. Bhushan suggested three options — revert to paper ballots, give VVPAT paper slips to voters for them to put in the ballot box and finally to make VVPAT screens transparent glass rather than opaque, as it was now.

The petitioners have also sought 100% cross verification of VVPAT slips with EVM votes count. They said while the government had spent nearly ₹5,000 crore to purchase nearly 24 lakh VVPATs, only slips from approximately 20,000 VVPATs could be verified.

They have referred to a reported judgment of the top court in 2013 in Subramanian Swamy v. Election Commission of India that the election process should “have fullest transparency in the system and to restore the confidence of the voters”.

Mr. Bhushan noted that European countries like Germany had gone back to paper ballots.

Justice Datta said there were 98 crore registered voters in India compared to the six crore population in Germany.

“This [elections in India] is a humongous task. My home State, West Bengal, is more populated than Germany. You have to repose some trust in somebody. Of course they [Election Commission] are accountable… Some dotting of the ‘i’ and ticking of the ‘t’ can happen, but do not try to bring down the system,” Justice Datta told the petitioners.

Mr. Sankaranarayanan said he was not concerned with population, but with a “very high chance of errors” in the EVMs.

Justice Khanna said candidates could exercise their right if they found a discrepancy between the total votes cast and votes counted.

“If we are to look into whether EVMs are functioning well, we have to go by data. We need data on the number of votes polled and the number counted. Any discrepancies in the past. How much discrepancy was there. On how many instances candidates requested counting… They (Election Commission) can provide the data,” Justice Khanna said.

29 Naxalites killed in encounter with security personnel in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker; 3 jawans hurt
At least 29 Naxalites were killed in an encounter with security personnel in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district on April 16, police officials said.

Three security personnel suffered injuries in the fierce gun-battle and a large quantity of weapons was also recovered from the spot, they said.

The gunfight took place at around 2 p.m. in Hapatola forest between Binagunda and Koronar villages under Chhotebethiya police station limits, when a joint team of the Border Security Force (BSF) and the state police’s District Reserve Guard (DRG) was out on an anti-Naxal operation, Inspector General of Police (Bastar Range) P. Sundarraj said.

The operation was launched based on inputs about the presence of senior cadres of north Bastar division of the outlawed CPI (Maoist) Shankar, Lalita, Raju and others, he said.

During patrolling in the area, a fierce gun-battle broke out between the two sides, the senior IPS officer said.

“Bodies of 29 Maoists along with a huge cache of weapons, including AK-47, SLR, Insas and .303 rifles, were recovered from the spot,” the IG said.

Polling in the Naxalite-hit Bastar Lok Sabha seat will take place on April 19 in the first phase, while the Kanker constituency, part of the Bastar region, will vote in the second round of general elections on April 26.

The search operation was still underway in the area amid intermittent firing between security personnel and Naxalites, said Mr. Sundarraj.

“Three security personnel sustained injuries in the gunfight and their condition was stated to be out of danger,” he said, adding they were referred to hospital for treatment.

After the latest encounter, 79 Naxalites have been killed in separate gun-battles with security forces in the Bastar region, comprising seven districts, including Kanker, so far this year.

On April 2, as many as 13 Naxalites were killed in an encounter with security forces in Bijapur district.

Patanjali advertisements case: Supreme Court gives penitent Ramdev a week to take redeeming steps
Facing contempt action, a visibly contrite Baba Ramdev and his associate Acharya Balkrishna unconditionally apologised in an open court room on Tuesday for violating a Supreme Court order to not advertise the herbal wares of their company, Patanjali Ayurved, even as the Supreme Court said they are still “ not off the hook”.

A Bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah gave the self-styled yoga guru and his associate a week to prove they were truly apologetic.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi assured the court that his clients would take steps, unilaterally at that, to redeem themselves in the eyes of the law and the public.

The court listed the case on April 23. The hearing began with the Bench summoning Ramdev and Balkrishna to the front of the courtroom.

Justice Kohli addressed Ramdev, dressed in his trademark saffron attire, in Hindi that the court was aware of his work in the field of yoga. The Bench however asked him why he had continued to advertise his herbal medicines despite the Union government recommending an investigation against them under the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act.

The court had said the advertisements of Patanjali to cure everything from diabetes, obesity to liver dysfunction and even COVID-19 during the months of pandemic were “deliberate and willful violations” of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act of 1954 and its Rules.

The judges questioned him as to why he had held a press conference, that too, a day after giving an undertaking in the Supreme Court to refrain from advertising “cures” in violation of the 1954 Act.

Justice Kohli asked Ramdev whether it was right to point the finger against other fields of medicine like allopathy, and claim his company’s medicines were far superior to them. Justice Kohli said it was “irresponsible behaviour” on the part of the ascetic to make such claims when a large number of people looked up to him.

At one point, the yoga guru admitted that he might have got carried away at some point with his claims. He folded his hands in apology to the Supreme Court, saying he would be prudent in future.

Balkrishna echoed the yoga guru saying he had realised his faults. He said it was lack of knowledge on his part. Justice Amanullah said the “law was equally for all”. Judges of the court followed the Constitution to which they had sworn an oath to uphold. It did not matter who was on the other side, the majesty of the court had to be safeguarded.

In the previous hearing, on April 10, the Supreme Court had refused to accept a second round of apology from Ramdev, Patanjali Ayurved and its Managing Director Acharya Balkrishna in the contempt case.

The court had flagged concern about Fast Moving Consumer Goods’ (FMCG) companies like Patanjali playing with the health of the gullible public while government failed to crack the whip.

“The victim is always the public. We are concerned with all those FMCG companies who are taking their consumers and clients up and down the garden path, showing them very rosy pictures about what their products can do for them,” Justice Hima Kohli had observed.

Lok Sabha polls: ECI bans Randeep Surjewala from campaigning for 48 hours over remarks on Hema Malini
The Election Commission of India (ECI) on April 16 barred Congress leader Randeep Surjewala from campaigning for 48 hours over his alleged derogatory remarks against BJP MP Hema Malini. This is the first campaign ban imposed by the poll body in this Lok Sabha election cycle.

The ECI on April 9 issued a show-cause notice to Surjewala for his alleged “undignified, uncivilised and vulgar” remarks against Hema Malini.

The poll body said it has carefully gone through the contents and averments made in the reply of Surjewala.

“The commission without prejudice to any order/notice issued or to be issued subsequently to him in the matter relating to MCC violations, hereby, strongly condemns the impugned statement made by him during the election campaign held in Haryana and reprimands Randeep Surjewala for the misconduct,” the poll watchdog said.

The commission, under Article 324 of the Constitution and all other powers enabling in this behalf, bars Surjewala from holding any public meetings, public processions, public rallies, road shows and interviews, public utterances in media (electronic, print, social media) etc. in connection with ongoing elections for 48 hours from 6 pm on April 16, it said.

Israel’s military chief says that Israel will respond to Iran’s weekend missile attack
Israel’s military chief said on April 15 that his country would respond to Iran’s weekend attack, but he did not elaborate on when and how as world leaders urged against retaliation, trying to avoid a spiral of violence in the Middle East.

The Iranian attack on April 13 came in response to a suspected Israeli strike two weeks earlier on an Iranian consular building in the Syrian capital of Damascus that killed two Iranian generals. It marked the first time Iran has launched a direct military assault on Israel despite decades of enmity dating back to the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran launched hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles at Israel in the attack. The Israeli military said that 99% of the drones and missiles were intercepted, by Israel’s own air defenses and warplanes and in coordination with a U.S.-led coalition of partners.

Israeli military chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said on April 15 that Israel is considering its next steps but that the Iranian strike “will be met with a response.” Halevi gave no details. The army’s spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Israel will respond “at the time that we choose.”

Both men spoke at the Nevatim air base in southern Israel, which Hagari said suffered only light damage in the Iranian attack. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been huddling with top officials to discuss a possible response. For a second straight day, the government made no announcements on any decisions.

In a conversation with U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Netanyahu said that “Israel will do whatever is required to defend itself,” the prime minister’s office announced.

While Israeli leaders have hinted at retaliation, the government is under heavy international pressure not to further escalate the conflict — especially after the Iranian strike caused such little damage.

The U.S. has urged Israel to show restraint as it seeks to build a broad diplomatic response.

While Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said any response is up to Israel to decide, he added: “We don’t want to see escalation, but we obviously will take necessary measures to protect our forces in the region.”

Pressed at a briefing about whether such a response would jeopardise stability in the region, Ryder said the U.S. will “stay in close consultation with our Israeli partners, as we have done throughout the weekend. Again, we don’t seek wider regional conflict.”

The U.S. also has been working in recent years to strengthen ties between Israel and moderate Arab states in an alliance to counter Iran.

Much of that cooperation has been under the umbrella of the U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East. Centcom works closely with militaries across the region, including Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries.

The U.S., Britain and Jordan — a key American ally in the region — have all said their air forces helped intercept the Iranian missiles and drones. Halevi said France and “other partners” were involved, and he noted that “Iran’s attack has created new opportunities for cooperation in the Middle East.”

The Iranian weapons also flew through Saudi skies, according to a map released by the Israeli military. Israel says most of the interceptions took place outside of Israeli airspace, indicating at least tacit cooperation with the Saudis.

A unilateral Israeli strike could strain these behind-the-scenes contacts, particularly with countries like Saudi Arabia that do not have official diplomatic relations with Israel. It also could risk opening a new front with Iran at a time when Israel is bogged down in a six-month war inside Gaza against Hamas militants.

Poll roundup
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and senior AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain, all of whom are behind bars, have been named by the party as star campaigners for the Lok Sabha polls in Gujarat. Arvind Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann are also among the list of 40 star campaigners, whose names have been submitted by the party to the Election Commission. Other prominent names on the list are AAP Rajya Sabha MPs Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and Sandeep Pathak. Names of Rajya Sabha MPs Harbhajan Singh and Swati Maliwal are missing from the list. Of the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, the AAP is contesting two — Bharuch and Bhavnagar — as part of the INDIA bloc, while its ally Congress is contesting the remaining 24.
In an attempt to reach out to different sections of the population, the Trinamool Congress is releasing its manifesto in six languages including Nepali and Oi Chiki — the script for the Santhali language. The Santhals form the largest tribe in Bengal’s tribal demographic of 7.8% and they are concentrated in the seats of West Medinipur, Bankura and Burdwan — which fall in the erstwhile Jungle Mahal area, which for long remained under the control of the Left Wing Extremists. In the 2016 Assembly elections, the Trinamool Congress published its manifesto in Oi Chiki. The party has been trying to reach out to the tribal population for a long time.
In Brief
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has made a fresh arrest in connection with the money laundering investigation against former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and others, official sources said on April 16. The federal agency also undertook some searches in Ranchi against a person named Antu Tirkey, who is allegedly linked to the case. The arrested person identified as Afshar Ali was lodged in jail under judicial custody in another money laundering case and the agency has taken his custody in the latest case after seeking a designated court’s permission. Ali is accused of committing “forgery” for allegedly grabbing some land in Jharkhand in purported connivance with the prime accused in the case against Soren and former Revenue Department Sub-Inspector Bhanu Pratap Prasad. This is the fourth arrest in the instant case.

Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.