Editorial 1 : The vote is safe
Introduction: The Supreme Court verdict in Association of Democratic Reforms vs Election Commission of India and Anr. gave its decision. The decision will have a long-term effect on the mechanism of conduction of elections in India.
What was the demand of the petitioner?
- The pleas by the petitioner — a return to paper ballots; printed paper ballots to each voter, placed in a ballot box and counted in full, and/or counting of every vote through a VVPAT slip — all demanded 100 per cent verification of votes.
What is the decision of SC?
- The bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta were unequivocal in their rejection of all three pleas in their separate but concurring judgments.
- The verdict also stated that “while maintaining a balanced perspective is crucial in evaluating systems or institutions, blindly distrusting any aspect of the system can breed unwarranted scepticism and impede progress”.
- It is correct. But the Court has gone beyond merely rejecting the petitioner’s pleas and put in place interventions that should put to rest any lingering doubts about India’s voting system.
- The Court has issued two directions.
- First, the Symbol Uploading Units (SULs) are to be kept in a strong room for 45 days after the results are declared. Like EVMs, they too can be examined and scrutinised.
- Second, any candidate in the second or third position can request that EVMs in the constituency are checked. In case of such a request, 5 per cent of machines per assembly segment will be examined.
- The first measure is a check that illustrates that votes have not been miscounted and the second gives candidates who have concerns a recourse to alleviate their doubts.
What did the court say on returning to ballot papers?
- Justice Datta says in his judgment that the question of returning to ballot papers “does not and cannot arise”.
- That would amount to turning the clock back on a system that has no significant blemishes and, in fact, has been widely lauded across the world.
Election Commission’s clarification on the mismatch between VVPAT and voting tally
- The court also sought to know about the factual authenticity of some media reports that four electronic voting devices mistakenly recorded votes for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during mock elections in Kerala earlier this week.
- Terming the media reports about the Kerala mock polls “false” and “inaccurate”, ECI shot down all apprehensions regarding possible tampering of EVMs and underlined that these machines, consisting of three separate and inviolable units, are tested at several stages before they are commissioned.
- It said that a mismatch between the votes cast and VVPATs happened only at a single instance when the data of a mock run was not removed, claiming that there was no other instance of mismatch reported by a candidate or agent in any election so far.
Conclusion: Trust in the election system is essential to democracy. Friday’s ruling, coming after an enriching and insightful exchange of arguments in the court, reinforces that trust.
Editorial 2 : Lessons from the US campus
Introduction: The widespread protests against the war in Gaza across dozens of US university campuses, and the unprecedented crackdowns are a sign of a triple crisis: Of liberal democracy, of the university, and paradoxically, of anti-war protests as well.
1. A sign of a crisis of liberal democracy
The protests are a sign of the crisis of liberal democracy in three ways.
- First, the protests are a consequence of the larger failure of a democratic system that has closed ranks allowing atrocities to unfold in Gaza, often even in the face of public opinion. The students are, perhaps inchoately, attempting that work of moral repair.
- Second, it is a crisis of liberal democracy because it has exposed the fact that free speech, even in a country with such strong first amendment protections, can be so easily immobilised or subject to partisan considerations.
- Third, if the risk in India is political authoritarianism, the risk in the United States is deep polarisation. The reactions and the political use of these protests will deepen that polarisation.
2. A sign of the crisis of the university
The protests also signal a crisis of the university.
- Firstly, Universities are increasingly targeted politically, but not to improve education. Instead, the goal is to delegitimize universities, particularly by the Republican party in the US. They use issues like critical race theory as an excuse to control universities and create a moral panic. Free speech arguments are ignored and used to further weaken universities.
- Second, the universities, by forsaking institutional neutrality, have become embroiled in conflicts driven by powerful groups. Trustee and alumni influence, previously less pronounced, now shapes the university's identity.
- Third, in many instances, the university’s own selective enforcement of “time, manner and place rules of protest” has produced diminishing confidence in the administration’s impartiality.
3. A sign of the crisis of protests
It is also a crisis for the protests.
- Firstly, a protest that gets construed not as a protest on principle, but a potential conflict between two groups risks losing its moral lustre. The universalism of the principles underlying the protest gets obscured.
- Second, the protests are struggling to find an appropriate target. The targets are University administrations and their associated political figures. However, they should be aware that university administration cannot influence the ongoing wars. In an election year, the mobilization of the young in politics ought to have more leverage.
- Finally, there is the predictable consequence — the object of discussion has become the university, not the war in Gaza. The discussion that is now dominating the world is the discussion about alleged limits to freedom in American universities, never mind the fact that every university in Gaza has been reduced to rubble.
Conclusion: the ongoing student protests have shown the signs of a crisis in democratic values. The deep polarisation in US politics has again cropped up the civil society protests. These protests will have a long-term impact on the democratic tradition of the world.