Sir,
There were two notable features of the recent All India Congress Committee (AICC) plenary session in Delhi. One was about Sonia Gandhi demonstrating that she was a more aggressive speaker than her son, although the latter tried to make up any shortfall in this respect in his second speech. The other was the party’s curious nostalgia for the past as was evident from its rejection of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) in preference to paper ballots.
The call for dispensing with EVMs is a retrograde step in a digital age when even 10/12-year-olds are more familiar with smart phones than their parents. If there any doubts about the reliability of EVMs (which are usually mentioned by losers), the party should have called for their upgradation, especially when Indian prowess in this particular field of technology is widely acknowledged.
The harking back to the days of paper ballots, therefore, will only reinforce the belief that the 133-year-old party has begun to show its age. It will be like going back to black-and-white TVs and Ambassador cars.
Yours etc….
Amulya Ganguli
on e-mail
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