‘We need EVMs for fair polls’

Berjis Desai lawyerauthor who has two books to his credit Oh Those Parsis and Towers of Silence has donated a R1 crore election corpus to the Bombay Parsi Punchayet BPP to ensure that the contentious trusteeship elections the runup of which has set new records in tumult with a trustee even going on a hunger strike to press for elections are held via machines and not ballot paperExcerpts from the interviewYou will pay a sum of Rs 1 crore to the BPP for the forthcoming electionsDesai That is correct This money is to be used for elections to seven seats for the trusteeship to the BPP I will not be standing for elections for trusteeshipWhen will these elections delayed because of COVID and then controversy be held That is the million dollar question for the communityDesai They should be held in May this year I think There is a final hearing of the petition slated for February 22 We must appreciate the Division Bench in the Bombay High Court of Justice S Kathawalla and Justice M Jadhav giving time to the community to hear the petition expeditiouslyWhat will this money a very substantial sum be specifically used forDesai The elections must be conducted through EVM rather than ballot paper There is a cost difference between both EVMs which are more expensive and ballot papers which are less expensive The money can be used to cover the cost differential so that the elections are held via EVMsIs this your personal moneyDesai Yes this is my personal money which I will pay for the conduct of the elections via EVM It is to be used as a corpus fund which will be used for these elections and the forthcoming polls too for the community Rather than pay the difference every time it makes more sense to have a onetime corpusThe BPP which is such a large landholder does not have the funds to hold an election via EVMDesai The Punchayet is the second largest landlord in Mumbai after the Mumbai Port Trust MPT Yet it is cash strapped there are losses and there is no cash flowThatrsquos a huge sum to donate as corpus considering itrsquos your personal wealthDesai It is important that we have a free and fair elections through EVMs When polls across the world are conducted via EVMs one cannot be regressive and say we want to use ballot paper This is to ensure that the Punchayet does not wriggle out of using EVMsThis is a donation for the good of the communityDesai You could call it that Look at the larger picture A fair election means that there is integrity and one day we will have a harmonious Board of Trustees that will bring about reform where need be Internal bickering right now is at the root of several problems including the cash crunch This state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue The good part though is that the community is becoming conscious and this can only augur well for the future