National

Where Rigging Is De Rigueur

Elections in the state have little to do with fairness or freedom. Bullets and fraud, not informed choice, determine the outcome.

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Where Rigging Is De Rigueur
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The old contemptibles have hit the straps in full fury. Using all the dubious tricks in their arsenal to defile yet again the sanctity of the democratic exercise of elections in Bihar. Which has to its dubious credit the distinction of teaching the rest of India the rudimentaries of manipulating the polls. Events during these elections have only confirmed that political parties in Bihar are unwilling to forsake their wicked ways. Notwithstanding the massive Election Commission bandobast for holding fair polls, the notorious political operators staged their shameful encore. Blood stained the ballot papers, voters were banished from booths, political murders became routine, fake ballot papers in fake boxes were imported and the state machinery was unabashedly exploited to benefit the stalwarts. Shredded counterfoils of ballot papers were strewn around Dehri-on-Son. And there was a dash of novelty too: polling officials at Bariyarpur in Munger were injected with sedatives to prevent honest intervention.

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This gory ritual had started in Begusarai way back in '57, from where the first incident of booth-capture was reported in the country. Bihar poll 'managers' have come a long way ever since; they have perfected the art of doctoring the electoral process to usurp power. And this is how these heretics of democracy operate.

BY 'MANAGING' THE ADMINISTRATION
In the run-up to elections '99, several senior officials in Bihar, like Gore Lal Yadav, Mahavir Prasad, Raj Bala Verma and K.M. Raju, were barred by the Election Commission from playing any role in the electoral process. The commission was convinced of the fact that these officials, as district magistrates, were exploiting the official machinery to benefit the ruling party. But as events during the polls proved, the strictures from the commission did little to prevent recurrence of this practice.

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In Bihar, the ruling party resorts to large-scale transfers of district magistrates and police superintendents once the announcement of polls is anticipated. District magistrates, who are also the returning officers, are chosen with care: the ruling party posts pliant mandarins to those seats where it senses defeat. Then this officer manipulates the deployment of central security forces to constituencies under his command. Tight security arrangements are reserved for Opposition bastions, especially in rural areas, to create panic among voters and limit turnout. Pocketboroughs of the ruling party are patrolled usually only by the home guards to allow its goons a free run.

The pliant administration also plays politics in determining which booths are to be declared sensitive. Booths in urban areas, where the ruling party stands a fair chance, are declared sensitive. Criminals partronised by the ruling party are left alone to resurface on the polling day, while the police round up petty thieves to exhibit proof of the administration's poll-preparedness.

BY UNLEASHING A REIGN OF TERROR
When the Janata Dal (Secular) candidate from Siwan, Akhlaq Ahmed, went to his constituency, he found he couldn't open his polling office there as the residents were unwilling to rent him out their premises. There wasn't a single poster of either his or the cpi(m-l) nominee to be seen in Siwan: all because the omnipresent rjd nominee Md. Shahabuddin doesn't take to competition kindly. When a doctor, known to Ahmed, invited the jd(s) candidate home for dinner, he was thrashed in public by Shahabu bhaiya's men the next day. The criminals didn't spare his clinic either. This atmosphere is responsible for reducing the battle of the ballot to a no-contest and Shahabuddin is poised to romp home. His bio-data is impressive: he's an accused in the murder of jnu student leader Chandrashekhar and is reported to have rained bullets on police superintendent S.K. Singhal in '96.

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In Bihar, Shahabuddin is no lone ranger. The bjp nominee from Singhbhum, Laxman Gilua, is involved in two murder cases. Fifteen cases, including one of extortion, is lodged against the rjd aspirant from Kishanganj, Md. Taslimuddin. The rjd nominee from Banka, Shakuni Chaudhary, is allegedly involved in the murder of six persons during the '95 polls and the massacre of nine others in Nawada. The jd(u) nominee from Sheohar, Anand Mohan Singh, is the prime accused in the murder of Gopalganj collector G. Krishnayya. Pappu Yadav, who is contesting the Purnea seat from jail as an Independent, is allegedly involved in several cases, including the murder of cpi(m) mla Ajit Sarkar. The list is endless.

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To initiate the reign of terror, these candidates bring along with them their private armies to the registration office while filing their papers. Thereafter, the battle-scarred soldiers swing into the act of terrorising voters as the D-day nears. Voters face a dire choice: either to stamp the ballots in favour of these candidates or to leave the booths to facilitate bogus voting. Henchmen of these candidates also explode bombs close to booths or fire shots in the air to effect a stampede and scare genuine voters away from the polling stations.

BY DOCTORING THE POLLING STATIONERY
During elections '99, a large number of fake ballot boxes have been seized from several districts in Bihar. Not to mention the furore over the 'excess' ballot papers printed at Saraswati Printing Press in Calcutta for the Barh and Nalanda Lok Sabha constituencies. This isn't news to poll managers in Bihar; only that their modus operandi now lies exposed to public scrutiny.

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But there's little novelty to the exercise. With the development in offset printing and the ready availability of the facility in virtually every town in Bihar, printing fake ballot papers is no tough task for those poll managers who curry favour with a pliant district administration. Even if one ballot paper is made available to these criminals a couple of days prior to voting, it can be duplicated in large numbers. In rural areas, the polling party gets the ballot papers and boxes earlier than those officials who are conducting polls in urban seats. En route the polling booth, pliant officials of these polling parties allow the poll managers to stuff the boxes with stamped ballots. On polling day, these officials delay voting as the half-filled boxes can take in only a limited number of genuine ballots.

BY SEIZING THE POLLING STATIONS
Genuine polling in Bihar is always by the trickle. People wait patiently in labyrinthine queues outside the booths as members of the dominant caste stamp ballots with impunity inside the building. When a patrolling party nears the booth, the queue of patient humans stirs to life to convey the impression that free and brisk polling is on. In many booths spread across the state, leaders of the dominant castes often entertain the security personnel with wine and women to wrest control of the booths. Leaders get liberal with wine and money four or five days before the polls to secure loyalty of the voters. In potential danger zones, members of the weaker sections are forewarned not to approach the polling booth. Often the dominant parties create confusion by spreading rumours to the effect that a particular community will be voting for a particular candidate. And impersonation is easy as few presiding officers insist on the presentation of the voter identity card at the booth. Even miracle antiseptic lotions are at hand to erase that ink blot on the finger. As these fool-proof arrangements ensure minimum violence on polling day, such incidents of bogus voting and rigging never make headlines.

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But violence is inescapable when the going gets tough for a potential winner. In Opposition strongholds, often ink or any other liquid colour is poured into the ballot box by the ruling party criminals to scuttle the poll process. Repolling in such cases often benefits the ruling party as heavy police presence creates panic among voters and limits turnout.

At the end of it all, the winner walks away with constitutional and social legitimacy. The returning officer's terse and official declaration absolves him of the crime he and his henchmen have committed against democracy. Then, the freshly-crowned feudal lord turns his attention to oiling his killer machine for the next enactment of the bloody drama. And the poor voter in Bihar is left to pine for that day when his representative will discharge the fiduciary responsibilities incumbent on him by sticking to the spirit of the law.

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