Congress Exposes Faults in Electronic Voting Machines EVMs
Congress Exposes Faults in Electronic Voting Machines EVMs
Since most politicians in opposition parties are illiterate, they cannot fully understand the manipulation that can be done with the EVMs.
By Rakesh Raman
Congress party said again that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) being used in Indian elections are full of faults. In a press conference held in Delhi on April 21, a Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera cited many EVM defects to claim that the EVMs are not safe even with the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) option.
Also, in a tweet posted on April 20, Congress said that in the 2019 Lok Sabha election 17.4 lakh VVPAT machines were used but the Election Commission of India (ECI) has reported that more than 6.5 lakh (or more than 37 percent) VVPAT machines were defective.
Congress adds that according to rules, the ECI has to preserve the VVPAT slips for at least 12 months, but the VVPAT slips of 2019 Lok Sabha election were destroyed just within four months.
And astonishingly prime minister (PM) Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were declared winners of the 2019 Lok Sabha election despite large-scale frauds related to EVMs and VVPAT machines.
The ECI has been ignoring the constant complaints of the opposition parties and research findings about the vulnerability of EVMs to persist with these insecure machines.
Rather, in December 2022, the ECI announced plans to expand the use of EVMs in Indian elections by introducing a new Multi-Constituency Remote Electronic Voting Machine (RVM).
The opposition parties complain that the BJP of PM Modi colludes with the ECI to manipulate EVMs and win elections deceptively. But the ECI – which is completely controlled by the Modi government – ignores the opposition complaints and holds elections on EVMs and mostly BJP wins. And the defeated opposition parties willy-nilly accept the election results and wait for the next elections.
As the doubts about the fraudulent use of EVMs have been increasing, ChatGPT (or Generative Pre-trained Transformer) – which is an artificial intelligence or AI-based online tool – confirms that there are several ways in which EVMs can be hacked and manipulated.
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OPPOSITION COMPLAINTS
The opposition party Congress complained about the EVM frauds even in the recent elections. When Congress was defeated by the BJP in the Gujarat election in December 2022, a Congress leader Digvijay Singh blamed the fraudulent use of EVMs. But he did not reveal any plan to stop the EVM manipulation.
Simultaneously, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera held a comprehensive briefing to explain how EVMs were manipulated by the BJP of PM Modi to win the Gujarat election. But he too did not discuss any specific strategy to combat the alleged EVM fraud by BJP in elections.
It is also observed that when EVMs malfunction, they vote only in favor of Modi’s BJP which runs with Lotus election symbol. Obviously, BJP will always oppose paper ballots and any investigation into the misuse of EVMs. And it goes without saying that the Election Commission – which is a toothless outfit – will always obey Modi.
However, top tech experts believe that it is very easy to tamper with EVMs in India and change the election results fraudulently in favor of certain candidates.
FRAUDULENT USE OF EVMs
In their study on EVMs in India, security researchers from India, the United States, and the Netherlands argue that “contrary to claims by Indian election authorities, these paperless electronic voting systems suffer from significant vulnerabilities.”
The researchers also have found that even brief access to the machines could allow dishonest election insiders or other criminals to alter election results. They have developed a video to demonstrate their claims.
Tech experts observe that besides other manipulations, the chip used in the EVMs is not of the OTP (One Time Programmable) category. That means, it can be programmed in each EVM to change the vote count in favor of a particular candidate.
Since opposition parties have been raising the EVM vulnerability issues repeatedly, now it is believed that the BJP manipulates EVMs selectively in some crucial state elections and Lok Sabha elections in which Modi himself contests.
Since most politicians in opposition parties are illiterate, they cannot fully understand the manipulation that can be done with the EVMs. Therefore, after some weak verbal protests, they accept EVM election results in which mostly BJP wins.
Now, with the introduction of new EVMs that the ECI has proposed, it will become extremely difficult for opposition parties to win elections and prove the vulnerability of the new machines.
If the opposition parties really want to stop the use of EVMs, they should hold street protests against the ECI in front of the ECI office and the state election commission offices.
As the ECI will again ignore the demands to discard EVMs and use paper ballots in elections, the opposition parties should boycott the future elections – including the Lok Sabha election 2024 – instead of complaining about EVMs after every election defeat.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of the humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society. He has also launched the “Power Play: Lok Sabha Election 2024 in India” editorial section to cover the news, events, and other developments related to the 2024 election.
