Some sections of the country’s political community have acquired the habit of using the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) either as an excuse for not winning an election, or a point of accusation that certain party won the polls by manipulating the EVMs. The allegations on most occasions are wild and intended to create confusion in the minds of unsuspecting common people or voters. A similar approach was adopted by some elements in the case of a wafer-thin majority of just 48 votes by a candidate in Mumbai North-West Lok Sabha constituency in the recent elections. The accusation was that the EVMs were manipulated through mobile hacking method so as to ensure certain results. The Returning Officer for the constituency, Ms. Vandana Suryavanshi, has stated unambiguously that an EVM is a stand-alone ecosystem that cannot be manipulated from a distance by adopting any means. She has maintained that the outcome of the election for Mumbai North-West constituency was fully legitimate and without any suspicion about the integrity of the EVMs or officialdom for the North-West Mumbai polls. The whole nation agrees with this contention because it stems from a straight-forward understanding of the technical issues involved in management of the EVMs. The common voters have agreed long back that there is no issue with the EVMs and that most elections in the country have been fair and free of any snags.

 

The snag, however, is political in nature when the combined Opposition and some liberal intellectuals keep accusing the EVMs as the real culprit that can be manipulated easily. Against this background, the assertion by Ms. Vandana Suryavanshi acquires significance. It is unfortunate that the combined Opposition is opposed to EVM suspecting that the official agencies hack the EVMs in different constituencies to acquire desired results of the elections. Though there are no reports about manipulability of the EVMs, some elements in the political community have continued to raise non-issues to heap doubts about the integrity of the EVMs as well as officialdom. Both the accusations do not stick since the country has seen the benefits of the wonder machine that the EVM is. Yet, the Opposition held a strong view -- no matter how erroneous -- that the EVMs are being manipulated by the winning parties. But after the mixed results of the Lok Sabha 2024 elections, there is little talk about the integrity of the electronic voting across the country. All of a sudden, for the Opposition, the EVMs have been robust systems that cannot be manipulated.

 

This should have been said much earlier so that the common people would harbour no suspicion about the integrity of the EVMs. However, no matter the truth, some Opposition leaders are still in a mood to keep raising doubts about the EVMs. Their purpose is clear -- they wish to communicate to larger audience their doubts about the electronic voting. This will give them an opportunity to escape the public ire in the future. Against this background, we wish to bring to the notice of the common people that there is no problem with the EVMs, but the problem is with the cantankerous Opposition that wishes to keep an excuse for not winning an encounter. All they do is to heap the blame on the EVM -- which is undesirable from multiple angles. The first leader of an Opposition party was Captain Amarinder Singh, the then Chief Minister of Punjab, to say openly against the general direction of the Congress party’s political discourse -- that there was no problem with the EVM; and that some elements use it as a political expediency. The common people must not lose sight of this.