EVM Controversy
There’s no concrete evidence of EVM manipulation. Only assumptions and presumptions. During the last parliamentary poll, despite the shrill cry of “over 400 this time”, the BJP was actually reduced from 303 to 232–unanticipated by any exit poll–well below the majority mark of 272. NarendraModi’s victory margin was drastically slashed. Rahul Gandhi and MahuaMoitra–the two most vocal voices persistently raising the “Adani” issue who had been thrown out of the parliament for committing that unpardonable crime–scored handsome wins. Smriti Irani lost!

In the just over assembly polls, defying predictions and overcoming vicious polarising campaigns, the INDIA alliance has scored a big win. In Karnataka, Congress has won all the three assembly seats including a very prestigious one. Even in Maharashtra, despite the debacle, the state Congress chief has won with a margin of 208 votes. Aditya Thackeray has also won.

In between, the BJP had lost hands down two most bitterly fought assembly polls–in West Bengal and Karnataka.

Under the obtaining power equations, what’s going to happen if polling is done with ballot boxes has been very effectively demonstrated during a Chandigarh Mayoral poll. Even the panchayat polls in West Bengal graphically demonstrate how rigging would be done both at the points of vote casting, via booth capture and bloc stamping of ballot papers, and also, though less frequently, even at the points of counting.

Not to forget, the EVM was introduced under MMS, and notModi. The BJP was quite vocal then asking it to be trashed. Yet, Modi won. With EVM under MMS. The table turned. The last parliamentary poll appeared to have buried the issue. But, no! Maharashtra preceded by has again revived it and given it a powerful (suicidal?) push! Of course, EVM is hightech. And the regime would manipulate it the moment it’s able to. No doubt about that. Hence calls for constant monitoring. The point is that as yet there’s no evidence, just none that it’s able to do so. And the alternative of the ballot box is just insane.
Sukla Sen

Expel Israel
To: Antonio Guterres
Secretary General, United Nations, New York
Date: 29 November, 2024

Dear Mr. Guterres,
The genocide–the ongoing Holocaust in Gaza–and who stands in clear opposition to that–is the defining moment today for anyone with a moral conscience. For 415 days now–the Israeli regime, its Zionist citizens and its entirely amoral supporters in the West, have been aiding and abetting this blood-letting. Upwards of 200000 Palestenians have been slaughtered, 70% of whom are women and children. And it’s now just how they are being murdered–by siege and starvation, as well as deliberately imprecise aerial bombing of buildings, hospitals, and displaced tents–using US-made and Indian weapons (Hermes-900 drones made by AdaniElbit Defence Systems in Hyderabad), it’s also the arbitrary detention of thousands of civilian males, their subsequent torture and custodial killings. Such is the recent case of Dr Adnan al-Bursch, a noted surgeon in Gaza, who was abducted, sodomised and then brutally left to die within the prison. His murder–is not an isolated case–and helps illustrate how Israel and the US regimes see the Palestine people. 

Israel, the Occupation government of Palestine, has blatantly ignored calls from peoples of the world, the UN, to stop the killing and the ICC has now called for the arrest of its ring leader Netanyahu and his henchman Gallant. All the while, Mr Biden in the USA–a lame duck literally demented President–has extended American taxpayer dollars and weapons to the Israeli thuggish regime–which flouts international laws and the Geneva convention. None of this is controversial, indeed–the outspoken Ms.Fransesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur has published a fully annotated assiduously documented report  detailing Israeli criminal behaviour. Large numbers of people in the world have noticed–from social media not from legacy media–that the moral-free Israeli occupiers have also killed hundreds of journalists, civil rescue workers, and  international kitchen workers delivering food aid within Gaza. The ‘Israelis’ and their backers seem to simply not care. There is little doubt in the world’s collective minds that Israel needs to go, and be dismantled. The time for Palestinians has come. Just yesterday, the Irish barrister BlinneNíGhrálaigh KCwho was part of the team at the ICC for South African said this in a two minute speech.

We urge the UN to expel Israel from its rolls.

Thank You, Sincerely,
Sandeep Pandey
National General Secretary
Saleem Khan
Uttar Pradesh General Secretary
Socialist Party (India)

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 25, Dec 15 - 21, 2024