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After the remarks of US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard alleging that voting systems in her country are susceptible to hacking, the Congress on Saturday leveled accusations towards the government and the Election Commission claiming silence on the EVM issue and urged the Supreme Court for suo motu intervention.
Rightly so, we expect that the Election Commission will now be accountable for the doubts it raised itself as many states are going for polls,” Congress General Secretary Randeep Surjewala said during a press conference.
The Congress along with several other opposition parties has challenged the reliability of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) while the leaders have called for a return to the traditional ballot system.
Surjewala remarked that the Supreme Court ought to be urged to set guidelines regarding the matter in the interest of ensuring free and transparent elections.
“Those who govern, CEC, EC and the NDA have to go to America and look for the Americans to investigate and work on the issues,” he said.
As I mentioned before, these suggestions were dismissed [regarding the vulnerability of EVMs] by the Election Commission sources on Friday, asserting that the EVMs function like straightforward calculators with zero Internet or infrared connectivity.
With regards to Gabbard's statements claiming that her office has obtained evidence of electronic voting systems in the US are susceptible to vote tampering, the sources noted that some countries use terms such as 'electronic voting systems' which are actually combinations of several systems, machines, and processes, many of which utilize private networks, including the Internet.
Moreover, they highlighted that India is one of the countries which uses electronic voting machines as its name suggests. The machines are “simple, correct and accurate” calculators that do not have the ability to link to the Internet, WiFi, or infrared telemetry.
As noted by the sources, these machines have survived legal and constitutional challenge by the Supreme Court as well as mandatory verification by political parties including performing “mock polls” prior to actual polling.
But Surjewala added that Gabbard, who held the position of Director of American National Intelligence, issued grave statements regarding the “credibility and plausibility of the Electronic Voting Machines”.
“Twenty-four hours is a long time. The Election Commission and Chief Election Commissioner of India have not given any statement, to which both Prime Minister Modi, the BJP, and NDA have chosen to remain quiet,” the Congress spokesperson stated.
Surjewala emphasized that the entire functioning of elections is shrouded in suspicion, especially with several state elections scheduled shortly.
He added that the Modi government faces critical inquiries, especially after the statements made by Gabbard, someone the government has recently shown admiration towards.
He specifically explains that the party is concerned about why the EC “is planting story based stories-basis claiming our EVMs are okay.”
“Rather, they are certifying without any examination that our EVMs are functioning without issues, What is the urgency?” he posed.
He stated that why the Congress leader must pose is, ‘should the supreme court of india not take suo moto cognizance of the matter and subject it to a detailed scrutiny, having regard to the fact that the elections conducted freely and considered as the pivotal part of the “basic structure” of the democracy is constitution of india?”
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