NRI

Election Commissioner Rawat Urges Overseas Indians to Cast Vote

Election Commissioner OP Rawat expressed concern over the emerging trend of data manipulation to influence voters.

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Election Commissioner Om Prakash Rawat urged overseas Indians to cast their vote in a bid to prevent the “emerging trend” of manipulation of information to influence voters.

If overseas Indian voters and service voters register themselves and exercise their franchise, they may represent three to four thousand voters per constituency, Rawat said during a seminar on Sept. 13. This will, he added, act as a counter to those seeking to manipulate data to distort electoral process.

“In the emerging threat perception scenario, it is imperative that all of you, the leaders, have to impress upon them that their vote may save the country from these machinations unleashed by all the forces, various technologies, various emerging trends the world over,” he said during a seminar on service voters in New Delhi, which was attended by Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra, representatives from the home and the external affairs ministries, and officers from the armed forces and central armed police forces.

While overseas Indians were earlier required to make an appearance in their constituency, service voters were allowed proxy voting. That is set to change now. The Union government on Aug. 2 approved changes to electoral laws so that Non-resident Indians can vote in Assembly and Lok Sabha election from overseas. The  Representation of People Act of 1950 originally disqualified NRIs from getting registered on the electoral rolls. In 2010, the Act was amended to include NRIs who were physically present in the country. With the latest change, NRIs will be able to exercise their rights through a “proxy”.

However, previous Election Commissioners were unhappy with the idea of proxy voting being extended to Non-resident Indians. Former CEC N Gopalaswami argued in a report in The Wire that the decision may lead to a demand for providing similar facilities to migrant workers within the country. Former CEC TS Krishnamurthy also expressed caution. He said to The Wire: “It is very difficult to say that these should be given to whole communities, they should be used very selectively, for example to persons with disabilities or those who are ailing. It cannot be given as a matter of right to everybody. Only in certain cases where the NRIs are unable to travel to their country then it can be considered. But for that too first you have to see that the safeguards are in place.”

Rawat added at the seminar: “Technology, big data firms, analytics are playing in such hands that anything has become possible through all kinds of inputs from different resources.”

He pointed out that there is an emerging trend to use data for propaganda and fake news. This, in turn, influences the mind of the voters “in a particular direction so that they vote in a particular way”.

He stressed that it is important that “we include the voice of everyone, especially people who are guarding our nation”.

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