Guwahati: The father of Chhattisgarh Nand Kumar Baghel, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, has written to President Ram Nath Kovind urging that elections must be held using ballot papers and pleading for “euthanasia” if his demand is not met.
Nand Kumar Baghel questioned the integrity of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in his letter to the president and urged that ballot papers be used in elections.
“All the constitutional rights of the citizens of the country are being violated on a large scale. The three pillars of democracy- Legislature, Judiciary and Executive, are being destroyed. The media is also working at the behest of the three pillars of democracy. No one is paying heed to the citizens of the country. There is a sense of fear among citizens,” the letter read.
The father of the Chhattisgarh chief minister is the president of the Rashtriya Matdata Jagriti Manch, which raises voter awareness.
“The right to vote is the most important democratic right, and it is exercised through electronic voting machines (EVMs). The EVMs have not been certified as 100 percent accurate by any nationally or internally recognized agencies or governments. Despite this, the constitutional right of my vote is being infringed in India, the world’s largest democracy, by employing machines to conduct polls. There is no certainty that my vote would be cast in favour of the candidate for whom I clicked the button on the EVM machine “he stated.
Nand Kumar appealed called to the president to allow India to adopt ballot paper and box systems for elections, citing industrialized countries as models, and said that if he did not, he should be allowed to die.
“In such conditions, when all of my rights are being violated, the very purpose of my life is lost, and as an Indian citizen, my conscience refuses to allow me to live any longer. Honorable President Ji, you took an oath to uphold the Constitution, yet my constitutional rights are being violated, and I have no choice but to die as a result “Baghel, the senior, stated.