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In a series of tweets, on Wednesday, veteran leader Digvijay Singh of the Congress, posted a series of tweets demanding a clarification from the Election Commission of India (ECI) regarding concerns raised by former Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer Kannan Gopinathan, about Electronic Voting Machines (EVM).

Singh tweeted, “Kannan Gopinath has made very pertinent points which question the ECI claim of EVM being a ‘Stand Alone Machine’, if it is connected to an external device?” He added “Also ECI has always claimed that EVM has only OTP (One Time Programmable) Chip but there are reports that the Chip used in VVPAT is a MTP (Multiple Programmable) Chip. If so then the message to the Control Unit is what VVPAT gives and not what Ballot Unit gives.”

This was in response to a series of tweets by Kannan Gopinath himself, where he made serious allegations against the ECI. “It was upsetting to see @ECISVEEP & TEC lying through the teeth to the public that EVMs are stand-alone machines designed to connect only among itself. This when they were in full knowledge that it had to be connected to an external device for symbol loading,” Gopinathan had tweeted.

Gopinathan had raised similar concerns on January 25, while speaking at a webinar hosted by SabrangIndia titled The EVM Conundrum, to look deeper into various concerns raised by a variety of stakeholders. Gopinathan had then said, “I used to defend EVM saying they are candidate agnostic and secondly, they are not connected to anything else. But it was during the training related to EVMs before the 2019 elections that I noticed for the first time, the machine was connected to another device.” He explained his apprehensions saying, “Earlier the machine could only see candidate 1, candidate 2 without knowing the name or party of the candidate. But with VVPATs, now that identification became possible and that raised concerns.”

Now, Gopinathan has offered a possible solution to the ECI. “As an immediate suggestion @ECISVEEP , for upcoming elections, don’t do the 2nd randomisation of EVMs (assigning EVMs to booths) before the commissioning/uploading of symbols to VVPAT. Do it after. This will at the least close a window of targeted booth level manipulation,” he tweeted. He also suggested, “Till the design/process vulnerabilities in EVM-VVPAT is addressed, go ahead and do a 100% tallying of VVPAT slips with CU,” and “Immediately amend the rule that puts the threat of fine and prosecution on a test vote going wrong. It is her vote. Voter shouldn’t feel intimidated,” adding that these three changes “do not require any design changes to EVM-VVPAT. These are only administrative changes and can be immediately implemented.”

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The EVM Conundrum: Concerns over EVMs not invalid, must be addressed

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Ever since former IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan resigned from his post in protest against the lockdown in the Jammu and Kashmir last August after Article 370 was abrogated, he seems to have walked  directly into the crosshairs of the ruling government for his dissenting views. Gopinath has been a vocal critic of the government’s errant policies, be it the Kashmir lockdown, or the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Gopinathan has fearlessly spoken about the trampling of fundamental human rights by the current political regime and he found himself in the news once again after he refused to resume his position as an IAS officer following a letter he received by the government asking him to rejoin duties in light of Covid-19. After he refused to follow the directives for reasons he mentioned on his Twitter account, an FIR was lodged against him in Gujarat for apparently not following government orders. 

Priyanka Kavish from Sabrang India spoke to Gopinathan in a free-wheeling chat, about the FIR, dissent in India and the Covid-19 lockdown.

Sabrang India: How did you react to the FIR? Have you received any more information about it?

Kannan Gopinathan: I haven’t received any formal communication from the Gujarat police. I did receive some messages about it and though I can’t be really sure, it seems like the FIR is about the fact that lawyer Prashant Bhushan had retweeted one of my tweets from March 30. I started digging up my tweets to look at what I’d written because apparently the charges invoked against me are Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings) and Section 505 (spreading misinformation to disturb public tranquility and disturb law and order). He had retweeted only 1 tweet where I had mentioned the order by AIIMS Raipur ordering doctors to donate their one day salary to the newly formed PM Cares Fund. I had tweeted saying it was doctors working on the frontlines to fight Covid-19, how can their money be taken to be put in the fund and why? In the tweet I also said that, “Narendra Modi, I would like to say I’m ashamed, but I don’t know how many times a day I’ll say that.” I don’t know when Narendra Modi became a God and saying anything against him has become an insult to religion. How is questioning an elected Prime Minister an insult to religion? The order has been retweeted by all. I’m unable to make sense of it. Even what Prashant Bhushan tweeted nowhere called for an FIR. On the one hand, you have poor migrants on roads wanting to go back home, and on the other hand a minister from the I&B ministry is tweeting his own picture watching Ramayan. That behaviour was highly unacceptable. Another journalist too was booked for a tweeting a government order on the same charges. This should have created an outrage.

Sabrang India: Lot has been said about the government’s unpreparedness to deal with situations like Covid-19. What is your take?

Kannan Gopinathan: This government believes that they shouldn’t be the government that takes time to think, this is the government that acts. In their effort to be seen as the government that acts, it has effectively become a government which acts before it thinks. There are no checks and balances in this democracy which is what empowers the government to do whatever it wants.

Sabrang India: What about the people who filed this FIR and what about those who say you’re not paying back to the country by refusing to join back the services?

Kannan Gopinathan: There are sensible people who are not subscribing to the government’s views, but they are not coming forward to raise their voices. It is probably a survival strategy. If citizens don’t raise their voices, the progress of the nation will only go down. It is the collective thinking capacity of the entire country that has taken our country forward. The government is a part of it and isn’t the only thinking entity. When you’re stifling dissent, it is not a good mark of progress. Questioning the government is acceptable. Because we aren’t a dictatorship, the previous government could go and a new government could come. If criticizing the previous government was an offense, then the current Prime Minister would perpetually be in jail. I owe at least this much to the country – to raise my voice and express my opinion when I find something wrong, when I think something should be done differently or when I have an idea to do things better. Keeping quiet would be the most unpatriotic act I could ever do. I have held 20-odd responsibilities during my tenure. If I sit to calculate, the government will end my owing me more than I owe it for spending on my training. I’m ready to do anything for the government, except for asking me to keep quiet. If the government asks me to contribute in anyway, I’m most willing to do it. But if it asks me to shut up and do my job, and for the government the ‘shut up’ part is more important, I’m not willing to do. My resignation is done and in the past. They might take coercive action against me, but my decisions will not be affected.

Sabrang India: How are you helping out during this crisis?

Kannan Gopinathan: I’m in touch with people from various countries and we’re coming up with different strategies who are communicating these with government officers. Ground relief is important, but it shouldn’t be limited to that. If you’re someone who can analyse and has been in the know of things, then you owe a different kind of service to the nation. I spend a lot of time reading our response and the response of different countries to this crisis.

Sabrang India: What do you think of the government’s response to this crisis?

Kannan Gopinathan: The biggest criticism is that the government is seeing the entire pandemic from the “middle class” and “upper middle class” perspective. Every policy decision is based around it. The housekeeping staff of a society is allowed because you’re not in contact with them but a domestic helper is not because you fear catching the virus from them. There is an obvious divide in the policy decision. Yesterday, arrangements for students to go back, but migrant labour was not allowed to return. The students should be allowed to return too, anyone who wants to go back should be allowed to return. They will be asked to return someday anyway. The poor person has a right to go home. I would like to ask people if they could be able to live in a shelter, where there are so many people, toilets are shared and you’re given food. These people have a home to go back to and they want to go back. If none of these people are infected, they should be allowed to go home. If some of them are infected, it is again a dangerous situation because the chance of spread is much higher because there is no social distancing at the shelters. Each day delayed, the spread is getting bigger. I’m talking rationally now. I said it before the lockdown too, saying that people should’ve been allowed to go back home. The seasonal migration even without Covid-19 would have happened because the harvesting season is here. It is irresponsible that the government didn’t anticipate this. Because of the lack of the insight of the government, the people are suffering. The middle class is ignorant towards this. Even when the Mahabharata was fought, Arjun was allowed to ask questions. Here, we aren’t even allowed to do that. The government has portrayed that it knows what it is doing and the only way to fight this crisis is to do what the government says.

Sabrang India: Why do think people are following everything the government says?

Kannan Gopinathan: Once the government knows it can run the narrative, it doesn’t matter what the reality is. The government gave a direction that anything about migrants shouldn’t be shown on TV. It isn’t that the issue isn’t there, it’s just that we aren’t being shown anything about it. It is easy to blame the police or administration. State capacity is limited too and the only way to get people to follow directions is through example. So yes, the police or administration may make mistakes or be over-enthusiastic in implementing orders, but these are the directives by people who make these policies because they feel it is easier to control by example. The government is being highly irresponsible if it can’t tolerate different views. The collective wisdom of the country must be used because the government doesn’t have solutions for everything. The country shouldn’t be punished for your inability to tolerate different views.

Sabrang India: What do you think the future will be like after the lockdown?

Kannan Gopinathan: I don’t really know. The government needs to ramp up testing, at least test a lakh a day. The virus is not going to end after the lockdown. Because the testing hasn’t been done on a large scale, the susceptible population which isn’t immune to the virus will remain more or less the same even after the lockdown. We’d be as blind as we are now. We should have ramped up testing capacity and hospital beds, etc. and in areas where this is done, the lockdown can be relaxed slowly. District level testing should be ramped up. We haven’t decentralized the capacity of testing. Unless we do that, we won’t be able to deal with it the way it’s supposed to be dealt with. We are getting a narrative because it is centralized. The ministry will come and give numbers, but the false sense of security will be more dangerous. The kind of messaging going out is wrong too. We have somehow criminalized the disease. Someone having is seen as a potential killer, spreading the disease. This is not the case. We are so afraid of the disease because of the communication about it. For a poor person, the thinking is that, if he goes and gets tested positive or even go check for symptoms, there is a 100 percent chance that he’s going to be put in isolation, his family is going to be put in isolation and then he’s going to be ostracized. This is going to affect people in an economic way, not just a social way. The communication was – ‘Don’t spread’. We need to change the narrative to – ‘If you’re affected, please get tested and treated.” Getting the infection isn’t a crime. This had happened with leprosy and HIV in the past. The narrative shouldn’t revolve around there being no cure, but around treatment and survival.

Related:

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An FIR has been filed against lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan and former IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan for “hurting religious sentiments” and “commenting on government orders” respectively, reported The Wire.

On Sunday evening, an FIR had been registered at the Bhaktinagar police station by the Gujarat police upon the complaint of retired army jawan Jaydev Joshi in Rajkot. The details of the FIR have not been disclosed. The investigation in the matter has now been transferred to the Special Operations Group (SOG).

Gopinathan’s woes began when he shared a government letter that he had recently received asking him to join duty immediately in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. On April 9, he had tweeted the letter saying, “Received a letter from the govt, asking me to re-join duties as IAS. While I extend all my services, in health, wealth and mind to the govt in this fight against covid-19 pandemic, it will be as a free & responsible citizen and not anymore as an IAS officer.”

Received a letter from the govt, asking me to re-join duties as IAS. While I extend all my services, in health, wealth and mind to the govt in this fight against covid-19 pandemic, it will be as a free & responsible citizen and not anymore as an IAS officer. 1/n pic.twitter.com/qlW0pBq1Ue

— Kannan Gopinathan (@naukarshah) April 9, 2020

Three days later, on April 12, he tweeted saying that an FIR had been registered against him.

So Gujarat Police registered an FIR against me it seems. For misinterpreting Govt orders & allegedly RTing Prashant Bhushan ?

Nice try @AmitShah. You can arrest. But you won’t silence. No one is afraid of you here.

PS: Dear PM @narendramodi, your daily briefings will continue. pic.twitter.com/Bb9puyi6un

— Kannan Gopinathan (@naukarshah) April 13, 2020

Speaking to The Wire, Kannan Gopinathan said, “I don’t even have the details of what the FIR is about. I’ve got information only from the media which says I’ve been booked for posting some government orders on social media to mislead people. I’ve no idea which order is the FIR about and whichever order be it, if government orders mislead people what could be done?”

“There has to be a basic verification before filing an FIR. It’s not that someone complains and the police immediately file an FIR. And it’s not just me, a journalist has also been booked. Does that mean people should not share government orders to put out their opinion on it?” he added saying that the conduct of the police reveals the priorities of the Modi government.

News editor Ashlin Mathew at National Herald has also been booked along with Gopinathan, allegedly for sharing the same government order. “During this time, when so much is happening in the country, just look at how the government is using its resources to look into stuff like this, even consider them, file an FIR, investigate and transfer it to SOG. Just imagine, the priorities of this government,” added Gopinathan.

He however said that the FIR would not deter or scare him from putting out his opinion. He said, “My writing on various actions the government is taking during COVID-19 would continue despite any of such acts. There is nothing that can stop it. It’s my freedom of expression and it is my duty to share whatever my opinion and suggestion with the public on what should be done and what should be avoided during this crisis.”

Questioning the move of the government he said that the a report in a Gujarati newspaper said that he had apparently retweeted Prashant Bhushan’s tweet, but he said it wasn’t true. He asked, “Even if I had retweeted that, how could it become a crime. How does it become a crime of I write something about the government order? How does it become a crime if I retweet something?”

Lawyer Prashant Bhushan has allegedly been booked for using objectionable language against Ramayana and Mahabharata. Rohit Rawal, the SOG’s investigating officer in the case said, “In his complain, Joshi accused Bhushan of misusing the word opium with Ramayana and Mahabharata in a tweet made on March 28 which has hurt the sentiments of many Hindu people.”

This was the tweet Bhushan had tweeted on March 28.

As crores starve & walk hundreds of miles home due to forced lockdown, our heartless ministers celebrate consuming & feeding the opium of Ramayana & Mahabharata to the people! https://t.co/eJqFkBmZu5

— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) March 28, 2020

Rawal added, “On the basis of the complaint, we have registered a case against the trio under section 34 (criminal act done by several persons), 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage the religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or the religious beliefs), 505(1) (publishing or circulating any statement, rumour or report which can cause fear and alarm amongst people) and section 120 -B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. We are verifying the tweet. Further investigation is on.”

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Kannan Gopinathan has become one of the prominent faces of dissent in the current wave of protests that has taken over the country.

He has been visiting many cities all over India ever since the protests against CAA and NRC have started erupting and has been widely speaking about the issue through various media. As per a notice issued by Resident Doctor’s Association of JN Medical College Hospital of Aligarh Muslim Univeristy, Kannan Gopinathan was scheduled to deliver a speech today at 2.30 pm in the College premises. In this regard he had posted a tweet saying he got a call from Aligarh District administration asking him not to attend the said event. He said that he will go to Aligarh anyway and that the Administration is free to do as they deem fit.

https://twitter.com/naukarshah/status/1213089808073056256

Got a call from Aligarh District administration asking me not to come for the event.

That they got direction from state govt to not let the event happen and to prevent my entry into district.

I will be going to Aligarh. Administration is free to do as they deem fit. #Resistance https://t.co/XKkBHPRnqN

— Kannan Gopinathan (@naukarshah) January 3, 2020

Clearly, he had apprehended that he will not be allowed to reach the event and that he would be detained. Expectedly, he was detained in Agra itself when the orders were to not enter Aligarh. He kept posting update via his twitter account about his detention whereby he briefly mentioned that the police were being cordial and respectful with him.

He also gave updates that he was first taken to a dhaba and then wondered why he was being taken to a guest house instead of a police station. He even shared a copy of the order of the District Magistrate of Aligarh.

https://twitter.com/naukarshah/status/1213326233926287361

This is the order shared by the CO. pic.twitter.com/7k90BNG441

— Kannan Gopinathan (@naukarshah) January 4, 2020

The notification issued by the Aligarh District Magistrate directed the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) to ensure that Gopinathan was not allowed to enter the district. Citing previous incidents, the order stated that the law and order situation was compromised during similar visits by Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav and Dr Kafeel Khan. It is reported that among the other speaker of the event, Fahad Ahmed, former General Secretary of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences has also been detained by the police.

https://twitter.com/naukarshah/status/1213324198711627776

pic.twitter.com/ZZMxsXcEYl

— Kannan Gopinathan (@naukarshah) January 4, 2020

The last update from him came at around 11 am.

Gopinathan, a 2012-batch IAS officer hails from Kerala and while in employment, he held the post of secretary of key departments like power and non-conventional energy sources in the Dadra and Nagar Haveli administration before quitting the services in August 2019 over “denial of freedom of expression in Jammu & Kashmir” following the dilution of Article 370.

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Former IAS Kannan Gopinathan seems to get no respite from the government. After resigning as the Collector of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, in protest of the Centre imposed clampdown in Jammu and Kashmir, he has now been slapped with a fresh chargesheet filed by the Home Ministry on November 6.

The Ministry, that has not processed his resignation so far, has accused him for misconduct and misbehavior. The memorandum shared by Gopinathan on Twitter, sees him being accused of acting in a manner unbecoming of a government servant, which includes insubordination, adoption of dilatory tactics and dereliction of duty on various occasions.

https://twitter.com/naukarshah/status/1191916980888047620

Speaking to The Logical Indian Gopinathan said that the ministry first blamed him for discontinuing his service after his resignation and did not process his resignation. The media approached Gopinathan after knowing about his resignation. Gopinathan also took part in numerous prime time debates and discussions and took up the issue of Kashmir. He alleged that the Centre found his participation in debates detrimental to their image.

Without budging from his stance on Kashmir he said, ““I own up to the reason for which I resigned. We have detained youths, previous Chief Ministers, MPs and MLAs from Kashmir without any procedure for more than 90 days. This is happening in democratic India.”

Speaking about the government’s move on Kashmir’s lockdown he remarked, “They (the Centre) are saying that they are keeping the communication shut and Kashmiris in custody because they want to save lives. So, they are saying that the government is unable to provide ‘life’ and ‘liberty’ together. The basic message is, if I have to protect your life, then I have to take away your liberty. The government which forces you to choose either of them is a completely incompetent one.”

Gopinathan has urged the citizens to not lose their collective voice and commented that if this was the treatment being meted out to him after he’d left the service, he wouldn’t know what the government would have done to him had he dissented while being an working officer for the government.

Gopinathan is not the only person who has faced the wrath of the government for opposing its policies.

Earlier Shah Faesal too had resigned from service to float the Jammu & Kashmir People’s Party. He has been in detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA) since August, when the Modi government scrapped Article 370, revoking the erstwhile state of its constitutional status.

Sasikanth Senthil who put down his papers on September 6, resigned from his post citing that he could no longer continue in office when the “fundamental building blocks of democracy were being compromised in an unprecedented manner”.

Gopinathan, Faesal and Senthil’s resignations are nothing but a mirror to what is wrong with the current government. Dissent is quashed, honest officers are not given their due and the government is indulging in scare-mongering – booking false cases against people with an opposing voice.

Will Gopinathan, who has become the voice of millions, be end up being silenced?

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This parliament is being used to demolish democracy brick by brick: Shah Faesal on Article 370

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Image Courtesy: trendsmap.com

On October 19, when the lockdown on Kashmir entered its 75^th day, KannanGopinathan, the IAS officer who quit the civil service to protest the clampdown and communication blockade in Jammu and Kashmir, initiated a taped-mouth protest campaign in a tweet, urging people to support him, The Telegraph reported.

He wanted to also convey a home truth, “If we are to be mute spectators to all this, let’s be that in a proper way.”

Kannan had earlier said that he hadn’t resigned because of the abrogation of Article 370, but because of what the government did to the people of J&K after that. “We just shut them up, and simply told them you don’t have a voice; you can’t express whether you’re angry or happy, whether you are upset or in anguish,” KannnanGopinathan told a crowd at Lamakaan.

The engineer-turned-bureaucrat embarked on a country-wide tour imparting lectures, holding candle-light vigils and initiating dialogues in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Lucknow among other places.

Responding to Gopinathan’s call, a meeting was organized at the Sacred Heart College, Thevara in Kochi. The meeting was attended by students, teachers and also the general public to openly denounce the communication blackout imposed on Kashmir.

Kannan, who has had his share of name calling after his move, has said that dissent is essential to democracy and while the government has the right to take decisions, the people have the right to protest them.

Branded an ‘anti-national’ by the right-wing radicalists, he said that true ‘national integrity’ would only take place if people from other states stood up to oppose the suppression of the Kashmiris.

On NRC and VVPATs

Gopinathan had also come down heavily on the use of VVPAT machines by the government. Opposing the Centre’s claim that machines actually made the election more transparent, Gopinathan said that instead they have actually made election rigging easier. As a District Magistrate earlier, Gopinathan has had first-hand experience of handling EVMs and VVPATs and knows fully well how the machines function.

He pointed out how VVPAT machines disconnected the Ballot Unit (on which a voter casts his/her vote) of the electronic voting machine from the Control Unit (in which votes are stored in electronic form).

Explaining why he was raising the issue at this stage, after his resignation, he put out an explainer on Twitter.

He said that a VVPAT can possibly be programmed in a way that it sends different signals to the printing unit and to the Control Unit. In other words, suppose a person votes for Candidate ‘A’. The rigged VVPAT will print the paper slip for Candidate ‘A’ only to the satisfaction of the voter, but it would send a different vote to the CU, say for Candidate ‘B’.

The malfunctioning of these EVMs, in Satara, was also reported by Mumbai Mirror, where the Election Commission (EC) accepted allegations that no matter which button the voter pressed, the votes went to the ruling BJP. This news left the EC red-faced with regards to their claim that EVMs were foolproof and could not be rigged.

Gopinathan has also staunchly opposed the NRC in his personal capacity. Connecting the issues of stripping off Kashmir’s constitutional provisions and the NRC at the event at Lamakaan in Hyderabad, he had said, “”Firstly, we are stripping off citizenship on one side, and not considering an entire state of people as citizens on the other hand. That is dangerous to the country.”

Kannan had said that while he wanted to exercise his freedom of expression, it was not possible for him to do so while he was in service.

Mentioning that dissent was all-important to him he said that it didn’t matter whether people’s perceptions or convictions were right or wrong, he stressed that everyone must have the right to be vocal about them.

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