Out damn spot: Is the EC's ink not so indelible?

Ever since NCP chief Sharad Pawar asked his supporters to vote twice since the elections were being spread out over a month, one question has remained in voters’ minds: is the indelible ink used by the Election Commission removable? Turns out it may be, but only if you’re willing to dabble with some chemicals or even undergo some pain. The Times of India reports that if you dip your finger in acetone and scrub it for an hour, you could get rid of the ink mark applied by the polling booth official. [caption id=“attachment_1496649” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Not so indelible? PTI image[/caption] The report cited multiple cases of people finding the ink marks either fading quickly or being easily removable through the use of acetone. A family in Bangalore has also claimed that other chemicals could be another way of getting the ink out and has even complained to the Election Commission about it. “My father is a doctor, accidentally some surgical solution fell on his thumb and the ink vanished,” Molancha Hore, a resident of Bangalore told the New Indian Express. Then there’s the painful way of getting it out. Like this Times of India correspondent who recounted her experience and proved you can even use lime juice to get it out. She wrote: This correspondent voted at Room No. 9 of Sule High School, Dhantoli, at 9am and started applying fresh lime juice at 9.04am. By 9.09am the dark blue mark had been replaced by a reddish brown stain. Rubbing the finger against a frayed cement edge and then applying hair oil removed the stain entirely. While most election officials have said there’s nothing they can do about it, the manufacturer of the ink has said that they haven’t received any complaints so far and stood by its quality saying that the ink should remain for at least a month.