RULE 49-O OF ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA / ARTICLE 17 A

Many of us do not know that we can choose not to vote under the law. Such a provision is available in the constitution as well as the rule book of election commission of India. Constitution makers way back in 1950 knew such a sitution may arise where the public will not wish to vote any candidates in their constituency. Reasons may be 'n' in No. He might be a corrupt politician, he is alleged to have raped some one [1], or they might have watched a "atrocity against Indian women " video in the assembly [2], or they might have been working hard at night for the progress of the country so that they can sleep in parliament [[3], reasons will go on like this. So the voters will be waiting for their turn to teach them a lesson in next 5 years when the election arrives. So they may choose to vote to another candidate. Eventually another candidate also turns out be 1,2,3. So the voter will be dejected.

The rule 49-o states that the "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."

That means he is telling under the law that he does not wish to vote to any candidate because he thinks they are all unfit. But If he does not vote, someone might fraud his vote. To prevent it he will "cast" his vote but to "no one".

 Currently EVM does not have this option. If some one wants to make use of rule 49-O, then he has to contact the polling officer and give it on a paper. This violates the "secrecy of Voting", for the same reason why EC banned opinion polls in 2009. Now there is a new proposal coming which requires a print button included in the EVM ( just like in ATM ). Since politicians are aware of the seriousness of the rule 49-O, none of them are pushing for it.

A hoax has been circulating which claims that if the '49-O' votes more than those of the winning candidate, then that poll will be canceled and will have to be re-polled. Furthermore, it claims that the contestants will be banned and they cannot contest the re-polling for their lifetime. This is false and has no basis whatsoever. Refer.

But hope this hoax becomes a reality and the Rule 49-O is implemented to make India a perfect democracy, Where common man is the rules not his representatives.

"Jai Hind"

WHY DO WE, INDIANS GO TO ABROAD FOR STUDIES?????

When i was in last year of my engineering so many of my batch mates were busy in preparing for GREat journey abroad and their TOE Fell in that attempt. That time i didn't give too much damn to these things, but recently when one of my friends had raised this issue in a public forum, all the thoughts i had stored since engineering came to light.

There can be so many reasons as to why we go abroad to study. Many say quality of edification in the western countries is good. They have merit based seat selection, opportunities are more, exposures are more,  we will get good job blah blah blah...finally the point comes, you can make more money. My question, what will do with more money? buy more stuffs, Invest , become rich, buy a foreign car and then what? For me it is not a point of patriotism that you have to study here only but my question is why not here. Every tom dick and harry who didn't had the credibility and competence here is doing some 'Master in Bullshit' course there. No offense fellas- I am not generalizing. I am just giving my view point here.

people go to western countries for studies - because:

• They have money to go there but not to toil their ass and secure seat here in one of the premier institution/ University.
• Their Parents have ASSets on which they can take Loan ( I have a very close friend of mine who is very brilliant, sad part is he doesn't have anything to take loan on. And he is interested to go abroad for research purposes - those facilities which are not here. Genuine reason)
• Masti - which they cannot do here. after all there it is a free society ;)
• Good Job and More money - I cannot comment on this, every one will have their own problems.
• To settle there, which they think is free from 'corruption+caste based reservation ....+ n' etc etc which are prevailing here.( then don't come here to find your bride/ groom - ' hey careful you may become corrupted')
• So that they can put up a show in front of their relatives as 'foreign returned'
• all of the above ;)

Yeah it is easy to comment on those things. Yes- the caste based reservation will not allow most of us to get a decent seat in an university, and those who have struggled can tell this better. There are very less seats in India in premier universities like IISC, IIT, NIT et al. My question is if you can spare 25 Lakh(average) to go and study abroad why can't you do it here? You can say Indian system is corrupted. 'Er... Excuse me - you are also part of this country. You have also contributed to corruption equally. How many times have you bribed the traffic havaldar to let you go'( This is altogether a different Topic which i will address later). I like this dialogue from RDB- " Koi des perfect Nahi hotha, Use Perfect banana Padtha hein". You can get quality of education you deserve here itself. For more knowledge, more facilities in research oriented subjects which are not "yet" available here, for those subjects& specialization which are not "yet" offered here - you may choose to go abroad in these genuine cases. No one prevents you from going. But unless it is absolutely required like the above genuine cases is there a point to go there? I dont know whether i have been offensive or needle sharp - I don't care. I have written what i felt that's all. After all we have freedom of speech :)[ref]