Opposition would only appear to be sour losers if it does not quit complaining about the Electronic Voting Machines. Without establishing how, when, where and by whom can the EVMs be hacked, it continues to raise doubts about the most foolproof process to poll voter’s opinion in a most efficient and technologically sound manner.
No better way has as yet been found to record voters’ preference in an electoral contest. Even in the US and most other western democracies, they are still stuck with the rudimentary ways to record votes. Yet, the Opposition continues to raise doubts about the impenetrability of the EVMs, though it is not possible to tamper with them.
Stray glitches and human errors aside, the EC had openly challenged critics to come and hack an EVM in the presence of independent experts. Nobody did. Yet, the Opposition would not stop raising doubts about the hacking of EVMs. On Tuesday, a group of 22 opposition parties petitioned the Supreme Court to seek one hundred percent paper trail in the voting process.
The apex court rejected the petition. Later during the day, they followed it up with a collective visit to the Nirvachan Sadan, again questioning the safety and security of EVMs. They also demanded that the paper trail of EVMs be counted first before the start of counting and in case there is any discrepancy the counting in an entire assembly segment be done through the electronic voting machines with a paper trail.
A full meeting of the EC is likely to consider the issue on Wednesday, a day before the votes in the Lok Sabha are set to be counted. Meanwhile, the EC debunked reports on social media about the hacking of EVMs after the end of the polling. Referring to these reports accompanied by a fraudulent depiction of EVMs being taken in a truck, the EC said the entire process was tamper-proof and conducted in the presence of representatives of various political parties.
The sealing, storage, and security of the EVMs and later their opening on the day of the count was transparent and all through the political parties were free to have their agents keep a close vigil on the entire exercise. The armed paramilitary units guarded the sealed storerooms round the clock. In short, the EC in effect was trashing all this talk of the rigging of the vote by interested parties.
Not-so-surprisingly the charade against EVMs was joined by leaders of those Opposition parties which had fought against each other in the poll. For example, leaders of the Samajwadi Party and the BSP joined the Congress in the outcry against the EVMs both in the apex court and with the Election Commission. Clearly, their renewed doubts about the EVMs stem from the exit poll surveys which show that the people have rejected them all in favour of the Modi-led alliance.
Holding the EVMs responsible for their coming rout might shift the blame from their own failures to convince the voters. But the voter is no fool, as is being suggested by a Congress Party spokesperson who blamed the ‘lack of education’ of voters in the North for the expected victory of the BJP.
With such open contempt for the voter intelligence whatever little chance there might have been of Congress revival is bound to be further depleted. Of course, the voter is no fool. Going by the exit polls, in Odisha while BJP is set to win a large number of Lok Sabha seats, State Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is on course to win a record fifth term. The discerning Odisha voter has voted for Modi in parliament and Patnaik in Assembly.
How can anyone question the political wisdom of such a voter? It may be that the BJP’s failure to project a chief ministerial candidate helped Patnaik but the voter in one of the most backward states in the country displayed political maturity the way it did. It is sheer arrogance to suggest that the reason why people voted for the BJP was that they were uneducated and illiterate. This is an insult of the voters. Rahul Gandhi owes an apology to the people.
