IT’S GROSSLY UNFAIR TO RAISE QUESTIONS ABOUT EVMs!

• People closely following the fortunes of the country’s political machinations over the last decade and a half must be wondering why the Grand Old Party of India keeps raising questions about the functioning of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) whenever the party loses an election. We are aware of how the Election Commission of India (ECI) has gone about introducing reformist measures over the last few decades starting from the time of the late Chief Election Commissioner TN Sheshan. For the uninitiated, the elections in the country a few decades back used to be ballot-based where rampant illegal voting used to be the norm. So much so that in states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, it was quite usual to see polling-related violence and booth-capturing incidents.

PC:Business standard

• Polling-related violence causing deaths was par for the course incidents and the law-and-order machinery in the poll-bound states used to be on tenterhooks back then. Of course, all those anachronistic practices paved the way for introducing several measures in line with the fast-changing times. One of the most welcome measures was to do away with the paper balloting with the timely introduction of EVMs that are tamper-proof, secure, safe, and reliable with an added measure like the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) further substantiating the exercise. No wonder, the ECI is renowned across the world for carrying out free, fair, and peaceful elections across the country with flying colours. Why are aspersions being cast then?

PC:Hindustan Times

• Make no mistake, carrying out a parliamentary election across the huge swathe of landscape in a country like India calls for humongous logistical arrangements, including but not restricted to preparing eligible voters lists, identifying lakhs of polling officials, police deployment, safeguarding model code of conduct, keeping a tab on illegal expenses, handling diverse queries from the political class, and the list goes on. However, when any polling is concluded on a peaceful note, an old political party like Congress raising red flags questioning the EVM’s functioning after losing the election is simply uncalled for. The same Congress does not raise question marks whenever it triumphs in an election will be termed as hypocritical and unfair.

PC:Hindustan Times

Time and again, the ECI has called for the political class as well as the technical experts to verify the tamper-proof functioning of the EVMs. Even the Supreme Court ruled that the EVMs cannot be tampered with just like that with various checks and balances in place to ensure inviolability. Unfortunately, when things go south for the party, the Congress appears to come out with statements demeaning the ECI and in turn about the EVMs’ solid performance election after election. Of late, even the opposition INDI alliance partners have questioned Congress for unnecessarily issuing negative statements about the EVMs. It’s time Congress leadership accepts that EVMs cannot be tampered with but make efforts to garner support from the electorate