This story is about how innovative our political parties are becoming when it comes to buying votes.
In the early days, voters would be paid an amount (say, Rs 500) to vote for a candidate./ The payment was made prior to voting.
Then, the payment was linked to outcome. 50% was paid prior to the vote, with the balance on success (i.e, if the candidate won).
All these payments were made in cash. Given the crores of voters who need to be paid, this entailed moving a lot of money. (Think: If you faced this problem as the boss of a political party in charge of payoffs, what would you do?)
The ingenious solution lay in eliminating cash payments entirely. Now, payments are made directly to a person’s mobile number — as a topup! All the party has to do is to send its bags of cash to the mobile company and provide it with a list of phone numbers to add the amount to.
This is how our ‘democracy’ is compromised.
