Daily Briefing: Between EVMs and paper ballots; Delhi knocks at Centre’s door; Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire

While you were asleep, the Pakistani authorities arrested hundreds of supporters of its jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan demanding his release as they stormed the capital Islamabad. A day earlier, at least six people were killed in the violent protests, which the supporters plan to continue until their leader, who has been in jail since August 2023, is freed.

In India’s East, Bangladesh police arrested Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari on sedition charges after he led a rally in Chattogram in October. Das was accused of disrespecting the country’s national flag. His arrest triggered protests by community members across the country, following which India’s Ministry of External Affairs raised concerns, urging authorities “to ensure the safety and security of Hindus and all minorities” in the neighbouring country.

With that, let’s move on to today’s edition:

• EVMs vs paper ballots
• Dismantling of climate talks
• Is Steve Smith struggling to score runs?

🚨 Big Story

What’s up with our EVMs?

The Supreme Court has dismissed a PIL which sought the re-introduction of ballot papers in place of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) remarking that the machines are blamed only when one loses an election. Rejecting the prayer as “unsound”, Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna said that it would undo electoral reforms. “EVMs have eliminated invalid votes… reduce paper usage… expediting the counting process and minimising errors,” he said.

Not on the same page: Struggling to make sense of MVA’s rout in Maharashtra Assembly elections, the Congress had revived its demand for a return to paper ballots, raising questions on the sanctity of the electoral process. While party president Mallikarjun Kharge called for a movement, NCP(SP) in the state set up a legal team for a judicial campaign on allegations against EVMs. However, many members of the INDIA bloc have signalled that, at least for now, they were not on the same page.

⚡ Only in Express

“The BJP is doing hit-out or get-out politics. We are not capable of becoming that ruthless. If you want to have transactional relations, you can do everything. The BJP, its politicians, have a transactional relation. Congress politicians are not like this.”

Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, at a recently held Express Adda, spoke on lessons for the Congress party from the Lok Sabha elections 2024, the Telangana model of development as a counter to the Gujarat model and the politics of polarisation.

📰 From the Front Page

After a stellar performance in the Assembly elections, winning 132 seats, the BJP is firm: Devendra Fadnavis will be the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. It also ruled out the Bihar model in the state as suggested by a few Shiv Sena leaders who have been pushing for their leader Eknath Shinde to return to the helm as CM. According to BJP sources, the party leadership is also trying to placate Shinde by offering him a role in the Centre, apart from “good portfolios” in the state.

With the Assembly elections round the corner, the Delhi government has sought to borrow Rs 10,000 crore from the National Small Savings Fund to meet its expenditure for the current financial year. However, the state’s finance department has flagged the move as these loans are more expensive than market borrowings. Delhi had not borrowed from NSSF in 2023-24, while it borrowed Rs 3,721 crore in 2022-23, much lower than Rs 10,000 crore-plus in each of the previous three years.

📌 Must Read

Are climate talks unravelling? Well, the COP29 meet sure points towards that. The COP29 climate meeting in Baku ended in disappointment last week. On the main issue of finance, developed countries agreed to mobilise only $300 billion for the developing nations every year, way short of at least $1 trillion that all assessments said was required. However, this is not the first time the annual climate conference has produced a disappointing outcome. Each of them in the last 15 years has delivered much below expectations. While science says that the world needs to cut its emissions by at least 43% by 2030 from 2019 levels, all assessments of current actions estimate that global emissions, even in the best-case scenarios, would be barely 2% down by that time.

‘Killer on trains’: A black-and-white sweatshirt and a backpack lay near the body of a 19-year-old girl in Gujarat, on November 14. Then began the manhunt to track down Rahul Karamveer Jat, alias Bholu, who has confessed to five murders in October-November — four of these on moving trains. The Gujarat Police had scoured footage from at least 5,000 CCTV cameras at railway stations across four states, before finally zeroing in on their man. Of the four murders, two were carried out before November 14 and two after the murder of the teenager in Valsad.

Ceasefire: In the first major step towards ending a yearlong conflict, Israel has approved a ceasefire agreement with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants. The conflict in the region started following Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. However, hours before the ceasefire was to take effect, Israel carried out the most intense wave of strikes in Beirut and its southern suburbs, killing at least 42 people.

⏳ And Finally…

What’s happened, Smith? Steve Smith’s form dictates Australia’s batting mood and having fallen twice cheaply in the first Test against India, he has been facing great criticism. Decoding his run drought, we see that for a batsman dependent on hand-eye coordination, the slowing hands hinder his bat from being at the right place at the right time. His dismissal to Jasprit Bumrah in the first evening is an example: It was his first ball, and he had retreated well behind the crease, almost square-on, pads brushing each other, his back facing the stumps. As Bumrah’s sharp nip-backer snaked in towards his pad, Smith’s hands moved, but unlike the past, this wasn’t coming in at high speed. He couldn’t get them in place in time to stop the damage.

🎧 In today’s episode of our 3 Things podcast, The Indian Express’ Amitabh Sinha talks about the key takeaways from the COP29 conference in Baku, Azerbaijan. Next, we delve into the European Space Agency’s upcoming mission to study the sun, followed by the Supreme Court’s response to a PIL seeking the replacement of EVMs with paper ballots.

That’s all for today. Thank you for being with us!

Until next time,
Ariba and Rounak Bagchi

Business As Usual by E P Unny