Blaming EVMs

Aditya Aamir
The way it is made, EVM is electing victors machine, not electronic voting machine: Sit in a cave and hack into the EVM and deliver votes to elect the Government of the cave-hack’s choice. The guy obviously is hacking for a party, definitely the party ruling which is in danger of losing hold on power because of umpteen screw-ups.
That includes demonising currency with demonetization, compelling housewives and grand old daddies to stand in queue, die! Currency notes, all in one stroke of the hour turned to useless paper, of no value. The rich and the poor alike brought to the same begging bowl status. Then heartless man Modi, according to Sholay, let loose dacoit Gabbar on the populace.
Now, Modi is playing games with the EVM and honest opposition, blessed with integrity and conscience, is compelled to go to foreign soil to inform the world what’s happening on home soil, the atmosphere at home pregnant with ‘anything.’ The United Kingdom is where elections are free and fair like the people there are fair.
There are Indian-origin journalists in UK who know better than journalists in India what’s good for India. And thanks to this guy Syed Shuja of Indian pedigree, now steeped in American come-clean fairness lore, the EVM stands exposed. Shuja has come out with revelations which he said will be denied by ECI and refuted by Modi Government and damned by the company that makes EVM.
He’s so right. Both EVM and Modi G and ECI have reacted exactly as Shuja-said to what Shuja-said: Refuted outright Shuja’s claim that anybody can hack EVM sitting in a remote cave hundreds of miles from EVM. Some Indian journalists say Shuja is not telling honest truth and is wearing soiled underwear. That his revelations are fishy and everybody and the blue whale know fish smell.
But British Indian journalists insist the Election Commission of India is bad hombre and ruling BJP is bad hombre and when two bad hombre collude there’s something fishy in the pond. Undermining the electoral process by screwing the EVM is no way to elect Governments. Go for paper ballot to choose government is the cry of the good hombre.
Word ‘hombre’ was made famous by Donald Trump, who called all Mexicans ‘bad hombre’ for jumping fence and entering United States illegally! Electronic voting machines in the United States have been called bad hombre, too, though they continue to deliver verdicts nobody except the opposition contests. The opposition everywhere has this thing against EVM.
After UPA won second time in 2009, opposition BJP cried foul and said it was EVM’s fault; that anything electronic can be tampered with and that the Indian EVM cannot go bad hombre was a myth. That is true, anything electronic can be tampered, hacked. Like the computer, everybody’s PC! Ten intelligence agencies are at the game these days, hacking into computers.
BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy in 2009 listed 9 steps to make EVM a respectable appendage of democracy. And BJP Rajya Sabha MP GVL Narasimha Rao wrote a book in which he said the EVM is the Achilles Heel of ECI. Today, both Swamy and Rao are singing “Meri Gully Mein Nahi’ and Syed Shuja and Kapil Sibal are hip-hopping ‘Modi Ki Gully Mein, Haan’.
Poor EVM has no place or people to turn to. It comes to this: Can EVM somehow come out with results that proclaim both Congress candidate and BJP candidate winners? Will Congress and BJP then agree EVM is free and fair? Fact of the matter is political parties should be free and fair. Politicians should free and fair in word and deed.
The blemish and blame is on political parties, not on the EVM and the ECI. The EVM like anything electronic can be hacked but it will take massive manpower and logistics to carry it out. To do the fraud on 272 seats is impossible because of the same reason. The BJP cried foul in 2009 when UPA won. The Opposition now says Modi’s got elected 2014 with EVM-tampering. The both of them should be happy playing Even-Stevens.
But no, they are in ‘Acrimonious Arcade’, flip-flopping, depending on who wins and who loses elections. The victor is all praise for EVM, the loser is dead set against EVM. But ask the people and they are okay with EVM. Rural women are the most happy; they get a kick out of anything ‘automatic.’
Going back to paper ballot is invitation to old-style election rigging – booth capturing and ballot stuffing – the sort which will make the exploits of Bonnie & Clyde look small fry. Roadside ruffians will elect candidates. Liquor fumes will leave ballots drunk and waltzing. Bottom-line is “stop scaring the Indian electorate” and let the “greatest show on earth” continue without tamperin. (IPA)

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