Every Vote Counts: The Story of India's Elections

by Navin Chawla

Navin Chawla has had a ringside view of Indian as Chief Election Commissioner, he supervised the landmark 2009 general election, and several key state elections as well. Drawing on his wide-ranging experience, Every Vote Counts presents a riveting account of how the daunting task of conducting the largest electoral exercise in the world is undertaken. The challenges before the Election Commission are How does one conduct free and fair elections when a large percentage of our lawmakers are law-breakers? Is the model code of conduct effective? How does one hold elections in Maoist-affected constituencies, or for that matter in the strife-torn state of Jammu and Kashmir? How reliable are electronic voting machines? Is it possible to implement compulsory voting? Will simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies make things any easier? Every Vote Counts is a fascinating, informative account that gives us a kaleidoscopic view of how the electoral machinery works in the world's largest democracy. With the 2019 elections just round the corner, this is a book that every concerned and interested Indian might want to read.

Genres: Politics, India

476 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 25, 2019

About the author

Navin Chawla was an Indian civil servant and writer, who served as 16th Chief Election Commissioner of India. Four phases (out of five) of the Indian general election to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament, were executed under his supervision in April and May 2009.
Chawla is best known for his biography of Mother Teresa and for conducting the 2009 general elections, despite concerns about his leanings towards the Congress Party. Action was taken against alleged malpractice by Congress governments in Rajasthan, Assam and Andhra Pradesh and the Congress-Allied government in Tamil Nadu. According to his family, Chawla was deeply influenced by Mother Teresa and decided not to resign from the civil service in 1997 in accordance with her advice.

Reviews

[Umesh Kesavan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author ,a former Chief Election Commissioner, fuses the genres of memoir and history to produce an academically useful book on the great carnival of Indian elections. Despite the pedestrian prose, some portions are really inspiring because the hard-work put in by officials shines through. One major irritant is that the author uses a significant portion of the book to settle scores with his predecessor N.Gopalswamy who recommended Chawla's removal. Independence of other election commissioners is definitely important but the author inexplicably places it at the top of all electoral reforms merely because he was personally affected.

[Rutuja Ramteke · Rating 4 out of 5]

❤Every Vote Counts By Navin Chawla❤
❤Genre: Non-fiction, political
❤Publisher: Harper Collins
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Introduction: Navin Chawla has had a ringside view of Indian elections: as Chief Election Commissioner, he supervised the landmark 2009 general election, and several key state elections as well. Drawing on his wide-ranging experience, Every Vote Counts presents a riveting account of how the daunting task of conducting the largest electoral exercise in the world is undertaken. The challenges before the Election Commission are many: How does one conduct free and fair elections when a large percentage of our lawmakers are law-breakers?
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My Opinion: Indian Elections are no so far & all the political parties are busy with their own strategies to win or to trick the opposition party. There are alot of perks of living in a democratic society but not everything is fair here. For us Indians, elections comes as a festival that too once in five years, I just was thinking that a entire book can be written on Indian Elections & I just got to know about Navin's Book, I finally read it and enjoyed it very much. It's a must read for all the Indian's out there who don't know the importance of their own vote. In the world of corruption & curses, terror by other political parties, a citizen's vote is easily bought by the political parties. Being a cheif, Navin himself has witnessed each & every detail about the Indian elections & this book is also on the awareness side. The cover is so very natural & lovely, the book is one of the best non-fictional read of 2019.
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Pros: Firstly, the language was very nutritive & versatile. Things were kept real & very real. The book had a flow of alot of skills & knowledge. It's not possible to handle such a crowd of 1.5 billion peoples & it's not easy to conduct the elections in fair conditions but the author has some realistic ways & experiences which I loved thoroughly. I highly recommend it. The real life pictures in the book had a good impact on me as a citizen.
Cons: I wish to inculcate more interest the language could have been fun at times.
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Rating: 4.3🌟

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 1 out of 5]

A pathetic wastage of my time.

The book tells you nothing new. Whereas, it could have been a different ball game altogether! Having been penned by a person who was so very much in the middle of things, the narrative was droll, drab and dry.

Of course, the author did not hold back in the slightest degree when he got the chance to throw few punches at his predecessor.

I can only curse myself for having been led to this book.

[Gayathri Jayaraman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read by any Indian. A good insight into the workings of world's largest democracy and the complications facing practicing democratic elections in a country with the populous crowd. Some sections are opinionated, as any book , should be , but A great book to bring to purview , factors affecting the elections in our nation

[Brijesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice book to understand the complicated process involved in Indian election , suggestion is to read t.n Seshan's book also

[Vikram · Rating 3 out of 5]

Average read! I was struggling in the end to finish this book!

[Vineeth Nair · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just average. Tells you nothing new. Aspects talked of are all already known to the layman.

[krishna kishor poddar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is all about india election system .