PrashantNews
This time, the main opposition Congress and even the AAP are not blaming the much-maligned EVMs. Neither of them talked on hacking or manipulation. There was a perceptible change. And nobody knew why? But fact remains that both Congress and AAP have taken the defeat in their stride.
Even if we don’t know the exact reasons, conjectures can be drawn from the recent municipal elections in Uttarakhand where EVMs were not used and instead the polling was held through the old system of ballots. Even in the absence of the EVMs, the BJP emerged victorious in most of the municipalities. It was a different matter that people complained that the polling through ballots was very slow due to which they were forced to stand in long queues. And when the counting was held, it took much longer time.
Let’s discuss something more. Last year, Tesla and Space X chief Elon Musk had advised against the use of EVMs citing concerns about their potential vulnerability for hacking. But his remarks came mainly after the alleged irregularities in Puerto Rico’s elections.
But some experts in India immediately reject Musk’s claim saying India is using third generation of EVMs known as M3 EVMs which are designed to be temper-proof. These machines enter a safety mode and become inoperable if any tempering attempts are detected. Even on earlier occasions, the Supreme Court had given clean chit to the Election Commission for the use of EVMs in the elections.
An FIR was registered against Syed Shuja, a self-styled Indian expert, who held a press conference in London to claim that EVMs could be hacked. The FIR against Shuja came after several verdicts by the Supreme Court and the High Courts endorsing the use of EVMs in elections. In 2017, the Election Commission had openly invited experts to demonstrate any vulnerability in the EVMs. But nobody turned up. Not even Shuja at that time.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Tuesday gave 15 days time to the ECI for filing reply on a petition seeking directions to allow someone examine the data of EVMs. The top Court also asked the ECI not to delete any data. “What we want is that somebody should examine the software and the hardware of the EVMs in order to see if the software and hardware has any element of manipulation or not,” said Prashant Bhushan , who appeared before the SC on the behalf of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) which has filed the plea.