EVM Tampering – An Undemocratic Process to Lead a Democratic Country
On Monday, 21st January a press conference was held in London, where Syed Shuja, a U.S based Cyber Security expert has made a statement on EVM Tampering which brings out several questions on the Indian Democracy and its leaders. He claimed that “The 2014 general election was “rigged” through the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), which, he says, can be hacked. There are several other claims made Shuja, but still, there are questions of creditability towards these statements.
This is not the first time that a voice has heard regarding the EVM tampering, a lot had been said before. AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal and Congress President Rahul Gandhi had claimed several times that EVM had been hacked in several places. In reply to these statements, Election Commission of India answered that “the machines are foolproof and the Commission is currently analysing what legal action is to be taken regarding the press conference in London.
In 2009, when Congress party won the 15th general election, BJP is the one, who had raised several questions on EVM tampering. The questions of BJP didn’t stop here, GVL Narasimha Rao, a spokesperson of BJP has written down a whole book on EVM tampering. Some of the pages in the book is written L. K Advani, the former Deputy Prime Minister of India. But now, when BJP is winning the elections, it all converted into false.
It again triggered, when in 2017 the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) won Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly elections with 325 seats out of 403. And after this BSP Supremo, Mayawati addressed a press conference, she said “Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand election results are very shocking. They are very hard to swallow anyone… This suggests that voting machines did not accept votes cast in favour of parties other than the BJP, or that votes cast for other parties were also registered as BJP’s”. With this, the whole opposition started murmuring the same allegations.
As such, there is no evidence of EVM tampering till date, it’s like the loser always criticizes the winner and vice – versa. Shuja also claimed that – he was part of a team at the public sector Electronic Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL), which designed and developed the EVMs, but there is no evidence to believe.
According to an article in The Hindu, it is pointed out that the EVM has a pre-programmed set of instructions which only selected devices can read through a wired connection. The only way to tamper with the EVMs is if the single-chip unit which the EVM possesses is dismantled altogether. However, in newer machines, it is not possible to do that at all and in others, it can be detected. So, in no way can the EVMs be tampered with.
There are always two sides of a coin, and I think EVM is not less than that coin. But when we talk about facts and credibility, there is no evidence of EVM tampering. After discussing so much, one question that begs my mind – Will 2019 Lok Sabha election be free from EVM tampering or we will get the same leader chosen an undemocratic process?
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