The essence of democracy and civil liberties founded on people’s confidence in the state instrumentalities. The free and fair franchise in the electioneering a must condition for survival of democracy.
The latest EVM hacking claims by Cyber Expert in London raised some inexplicable answers. First of all, why Election Commission of India is adamant to EVM and why not on Ballot Paper. The demands of concerned citizens have been repeatedly ignore by the government and Election Commission despite numerous instances of hacking, malfunctioning, and rigging of EVMs. The Election Commission is even not ready to count VVPAT and EVM votes to match the tally of total casted votes in each assembly, why?
Former Finance Minister of the country P. Chidambaram too pleaded for counting of each EVM votes and VVPAT slips. The argument of counting would delayed the result does not sustain because the issue of survival of democracy and people trust in the state instrumentalities is much larger than few hours delay. Is the world will break out with striking suddenness if the results announced after few hours.
The government has outrightly rejected the claims made by Cyber Expert in London Hackathon show and why no pondering over the issues raised in that event? Are the claims made by expert not genuine? Yes, the claims made by the expert and very serious in nature and demands thorough probe. Mr G Sampath, Ex-Chief Election Commissioner of India rightly said in his latest thought provoking article in The Hindu (dt 22.01.2019) that Ballot Paper is the need of the hour because people have lost their faith in EVM and only Ballot Paper cant satisfy the three tests of visual confirmation of the vote, secret ballot and visible counting.
The EVM and VVPAT system has been failed completely on fair, free and rigging free election. The TDP Supremo N Chandrababu Naidu has termed the EVM nothing but fraud to the democracy and Constitution and call for Ballot Paper immediately, but Election Commission suspicious silence raised many questions.
Delhi Chief Minister Mr Arvind Kejriwal has also raised serious objection about the EVM functioning during Punjab poll and repeatedly asking for bringing Ballot Paper. Congress leader Kapil Sibal has asked for revert to ballot paper in 2019 general election and 50 percent of VVPAT machines need to be checked.
But ECI is not agreed, why? In this whole episode the important thing is the Election Commission of India even not agreed to count the EVM votes and VVPAT slips. Will the commission explain what is the significance of VVPAT machines when its slips never tallied with the counted votes with EVMs. The fact of the matter is very simple democracy and constitution under extreme threat.
