‘Modi Voting Machines’?
Electronic Voting Machines under the current ruling party of India
“Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures”, these lines have been stated in Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights based on free and fair elections to choose political representatives. Electoral Voting Machines were introduced in India in 1998 to reduce electoral fraud. Since its inception, many political parties alleged the credibility of EVMs. Ironically, after so many years of allegations, questioning its credibility the EVMs are still use to all the main elections in India. Paper ballots and Manual counting had been used in India before the introduction of the EVMs.
A few days earlier a video surfaced on social media platforms allegedly showing an electronic voting machine inside the car of a ruling party candidate in Assam. BJP’s love affair with EVMs started in the 2014 election which they won with an absolute majority. In January 2019 a cyber expert named Syed Shuja claimed that the 2014 Indian general election was hacked by the BJP and others opposition parties. The word ‘controversy’ is associated with the ruling party when it comes to its relations with the EVMs. In the 2017 Gujarat assembly election Congress candidates claimed that three EVMs were connected to some kind of blue tooth device. The same year also in Utter Prades allegations have been made by voters that if they press any button other than the one that belongs to the BJP the vote shockingly goes to the ruling party and the same allegations have been made during the 2019 Maharashtra assembly election. Also in the 2019 Hariyana assembly election In a video, a BJP candidate had been heard saying that he and his supporters had tampered EVMs and every vote would go to the BJP, irrespective of the button the voters pressed. Allegations on the Electronic Voting Machines came from the BJP when they were in opposition but now they defending their reliability as the oppositions raising questions about the functioning of the machines. After the defeat of the 2009 election to the United Progressive Allice, it was L.K. Advani who made allegations against the EVMs saying, “I regard it significant that Germany, technologically, one of the most advanced countries of the world, have become so wary of EVMs as to ban their use altogether”. Even though he didn’t utter a single word against the voting machines after winning the 2014 election, who knows he maybe wants to utter some words against the voting machines but his ‘Narendra Bhai’ (refers to Modi) don’t let him.
A machine is a mechanical structure that uses power to apply forces and control movement to perform an intended action. These are great at handling things but they need humans to operate them. In terms of EVMs, these machines need the help of Election Commission officers. If there is something wrong that happens to the EVMs, the EC should be responsible and take into account. How on earth an EVM machine can be found on a party leader’s car? It’s too dumb sometimes to believe the EC is unaware of everything even though they suspend some of the officers. Apart from the EVMs, the Commission has been widely considered a helping hand of the BJP.
Is the EVMs fraud real? Is this really as Rahul Gandhi described it as ‘Modi Voting Machines’? Sometimes it can be the subject of huge debate and discussions. Few days earlier a polling officer in West Bengal took 4 EVMs and 4 VVPATs to a TMC leader’s house amid the 2021 West Bengal assembly election. TMC is the main opposition for the BJP in Bengal 2021 assembly election. BJP leader Subramanian Swamy always doubts the credibility of EVMs when his party was in opposition he spoke out against it and now after the EVM incident in Assam he described EVM as a ‘wholesale machine’. On the other hand softcore right-wing intellectual people like Tavleen Singh who is a journalist and writer, never doubted in Election Commission and EVMs. She argued in her book ‘Messiah Modi’ when the opposition politicians gathered in Delhi to protest against EVMs fraud, “They knew that was that this was impossible. They knew just months earlier when the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh voted out BJP governments they had happily accepted the verdict”. The Election Commission held an open challenge in 2017 to opposition parties who rallied against the EVMs and raised credibility issues against it. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Nationalist Congress Party we’re backed up by the challenge. It was crystal clear that the hypocrisy of the opposition parties showed with that decision to not accept the challenge. To be honest it’s quite a tough task to conduct elections in India as it has more than 800 million voters. There are many advantages to using Electronic Voting Machines as places where illiteracy is a factor, illiterate people find the machines easier than the ballot paper system. There are some disadvantages too. A candidate can be aware of the fact that how many people from a polling station voted for him. Amid all the controversies and allegations the Election Commission has to find a way to have fair elections. During the 2019 assembly elections in Maharashtra and Hariyana, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh suggested a combination of EVM and Ballot Box. “After pressing the button on ballot unit instead the Voter seeing the picture on the screen for 7 seconds the printer should give the Voter printed vote in his hand which he can physically put in a ballot box,” he wrote in his Twitter account. After the tweet of Digvijaya Singh, the Chief Election Commissioner of India argued that it would take a lot more time in counting the votes. To conduct a free and fair election you need to sacrifice something or you have to find a way to count the votes on a fast track Mr Election Commissioner. In a democracy, people have the right to choose their representatives, their leader whom they want not as a dictator but as a saviour. Even though people can be argued that India is not a democratic country anymore.
