Urban Legend - Act 49-O

While the parliamentary election were on in India, I received several emails to exercise my right of not giving my vote to anyone. The general email reads as follows:

"Did you know that there is a system in our constitution, as per the 1969 act, in section "49-O" that a person can go to the polling booth, confirm his identity, get his finger marked and convey the presiding election officer that he doesn't want to vote anyone !!!! Yes, such a feature is available, but obviously these seemingly notorious leaders have never disclosed it. This is called"49-O".
Why should you go and say "I VOTE NOBODY"... because, in a ward, if a candidate wins, say by 123 votes, and that particular ward has received "49-O" votes more than 123, then that polling will be canceled and will have to be re-polled. Not only that, but the candidature of the contestants will be removed and they cannot contest the re-polling, since people had already expressed their decision on them. This would bring fear into parties and hence look for genuine candidates for their parties for election. This would change the way, of our whole political system... it is seemingly surprising why, and election commission has not revealed such a feature to the public.... please spread this news to as many as you know... Seems to be a wonderful weapon against corrupt parties in India... show your power, expressing your desire not to vote anybody, is even more powerful than voting... so don't miss your chance. So either vote, or vote not to vote (vote 49-O) and pass this info on..."

While there is some truth in the email, some of it is false.

Truth: Yes there is a clause in "Conduct of Election Rules, 1961" called 49-O, which is very similar to the one described in the email. The clause says:

"49-O. Elector deciding not to vote.-If an elector, after his electoral roll number has been duly entered in the register of voters in Form-17A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon as required under sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to record his vote, a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in Form 17A by the presiding officer and the signature or thumb impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark." [Ref]

False: Although there is a clause named 49-O and it also give you a right not to vote, it has no tooth. I mean there is no provision for re-election, re-polling, or removal of the candidature of the candidates.

The clause is mainly to help avoid proxy voting. If you don't want to give your vote to anyone, and also don't want someone else to do proxy voting in your name, you can go and exercise your right to not to vote. This would make it impossible for someone else to cast vote in your name.

The problem in exercising this right is that your identity would be revealed. Earlier, in times of old Ballot Paper, you could leave the paper blank and drop it in the box. However, the new EVMs doesn't have an option of 'None of the above'. If you exercise this right, the polling official and the polling agent would come to know about it. The proposed election reforms have considered this issue, and have suggested an extra option on the EVMs. [Ref]

Now about the tooth part, there are PILs and several activists trying to convice Supreme Court and Election Commission to amend this clause and give it some tooth.

So there exists a clause named 49-O and it does take care of 'Negative / Neutral Voting'. However it doesn't have any option of cancelling the election in the particular are, or forcing re-polling.

Triple Filter Test

In ancient Greece (469 - 399 BC), Socrates was widely lauded for his wisdom.

One day the great philosopher came upon an acquaintance who ran up to him excitedly and said, "Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one of your students?"

Wait a moment," Socrates replied. "Before you tell me I'd like you to pass a little test.It's called the Triple Filter Test."

"Triple filter?"

"That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my student let's take a moment to filter what you're going to say. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"

"No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and..."

"All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my student something good?"

"No, on the contrary..."

"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, even though you're not certain it's true?"

The man shrugged, a little embarrassed.

Socrates continued. "You may still pass the test though,because there is a third filter - the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my student going to be useful to me?"

"No, not really..."

"Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither True nor Good nor even Useful,! why tell it to me at all?"

The man was defeated and ashamed.

is your credit card company cheating on you??

Have you wondered why the credit card agents are so anxious to give you those life time free credit cards??
Have you thought how the credit card companies earn profit, while giving you interest free credit for 40 days?
Is your credit card statement perpetually late?? do you have to suffer the late fee because of delay on part of the credit card company?

Link to story

Stop paying late fee, and be cautious while using those cards!!
The credit card companies have earned 6000 crore rs. from customers in terms of various fees. They have been violating norms using unfair practices and making false promises. Its one of their strategy to delay the issue of statement and then levy the high late fee. Another practice they have is selling the credit card in the name of life time free and then levying annual fee one year later!!

*Tip* : If you are victim of your credit card companies bad practices, talk to their customer service and threaten to discontinue the card. Its a tested method and works most of the time.

Laws of Love

Laws of Love

{1} Universal law of Love:
" Love can neither be created nor be destroyed; only it can transfer from One girlfriend to another girlfriend with some loss of money "

{2} First law of Love:
" A boy in love with a girl, continue to be in love with her and a girl in love with a boy, continue to be in love with him, until or unless any external agent (brother or father of the gal) comes into play and break the legs of the boy. "

{3} Second law of Love:
" The rate of change of intensity of love of a girl towards a boy is directly proportional to the instantaneous bank balance of the boy and the direction of this love is same to as increment or decrement of the bank balance. "

{4} Third law of Love:
" The force applied while proposing a girl by a boy is equal and opposite to the force applied by the girl while slapping"

Are you a voter?

I found this information while browsing through Indian Govt. official website. You can search the Electoral Rolls (Voter Lists) of the Election Commission of India. I found my information there, Check out if your name is there in it or not.

Search Electoral Rolls (Voter Lists)

Hope this information helps someone. You might want to browse National Portal of India, It has plethora of information on it.

Right to Information

Right to Information Act, One law which gave hope to the nation against corruption. Here is a chat session by rediff on how we can use is more efficiently. See if your questions lies in this session.

Rediff.com

Here are some websites suggested by Shailesh Gandhi in this chat session.

www.righttoinformation.com
www.righttoinformation.org
www.satyamevajayate.info

Murphy's Laws

• Whenever I find the key to success, someone changes the lock.
• To Err is human, to forgive is not a COMPANY policy.
• The road to success..... ... is always under construction .
• Alcohol doesn't solve any problems, but if you think again, neither does Milk..
• In order to get a Loan, you first need to prove that you don't need it.
• All the desirable things in life are either illegal, expensive or fattening.
• Since Light travels faster than Sound, people appear brighter before you hear them speak.
• Everyone has a scheme of getting rich..... which never works .
• If at first you don't succeed.... Destroy all evidence that you ever tried .
• You can never determine which side of the bread to butter. If it falls down, it will always land on the buttered side.
• ***** 42.7% of all statistics is made on the spot. *****
• As soon as you mention something... ... if it is good, it is taken.... If it is bad, it happens.
• He who has the gold, makes the rules ---- Murphy's golden rule.
• If you come early, the bus is late. If you come late...... the bus is still late .
• Once you have bought something, you will find the same item being sold somewhere else at a cheaper rate.
• If you have paper, you don't have a pen....... If you have a pen, you don't have paper...... if you have both, no one calls .
• Especially for engg. Students---- If you have bunked the class, the professor has taken attendance.
• You will pick up maximum wrong numbers when on roaming.
• All buses are crowded. Corollary--- -- buses in opposite direction always go empty.
• After a long wait for bus no.20, two 20 number buses will always pull in together and the bus which you get in will be crowded than the other.
• If your exam is tomorrow, there will be a power cut tonight .
• The last person to be fired or quit is responsible for all the errors until another person is fired or quits.
• Irrespective of the direction of the wind, the smoke from the cigarette will always tend to go to the non-smoker.