The most unfortunate thing is that the machines won't be replaced before crucial elections. If they are ever replaced at all. It's in the interest of the political parties to let them continue and the executive branch of the government is too myopic to deal with something like this. Their documents think that it's the greatest machine on Earth (I kid you not) and others are begging a piece of their action. The judiciary in the other hand is already bogged down and it will be many years before the higher courts hear this case and several years for the deliberation to come out.
What alarms me is that this is a country where parliamentary votes can be bagged for money (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash-for-votes_scandal ) and politicians try to buy the people through thinly veiled bribes. What happens if you remove the last pillars of belief in the system? The ballot has been sacred ground in India and it has been a symbol that everything can be fixed. What happens if you take that away?
What alarms me is that this is a country where parliamentary votes can be bagged for money (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash-for-votes_scandal ) and politicians try to buy the people through thinly veiled bribes. What happens if you remove the last pillars of belief in the system? The ballot has been sacred ground in India and it has been a symbol that everything can be fixed. What happens if you take that away?