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BHOPAL: Two days before the 75th Republic Day and a day before National Voters’ Day, former chief minister and senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh again raised the issue of possible EVM tampering during elections.
Addressing a press conference in state capital on Wednesday, Digvijaya Singh with a dummy EVM tried to prove that tampering is possible.
He also alleged that who will win the election is decided by the software, not the people. He further alleged that the ECI does not work with impartiality.
The veteran Congress leader argued that it took a long time for him to convince his party that EVM tampering is possible. Digvijaya Singh’s allegation comes less than three months to the Lok Sabha elections.
Technocrat Sam Pitroda has also called a virtual press conference with the international and Indian media on Thursday to discuss the EVM and VVPAT voting system.
“The 24 political parties of the INDIA bloc submitted a memorandum and asked ECI to give us time for a meeting. It’s more than six months and they have not given us the time? Is this impartiality?” Digvijaya Singh asked.
“It is my allegation on the EC that it is working under the pressure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP. Take whatever action you have to on me. Put whichever software or hardware you want to use. But it is my right that my vote should reach where I intend it should go to,” Digvijaya said.
The senior leader gave a demonstration on how EVM tampering affects the voting. Digvijaya Singh’s claim was supported by former chief minister Kamal Nath while the state BJP said that allegations of EVM tampering is to hide the failures of the BJP leaders.
“India is known as the Mother of democracy and in this country our constitutional right of voting means I can vote where I want with secrecy and the counting should be done correctly. From 2003 to 2012, the same EVMs worked which Lal Krishna Advani complained against and GVL Narasimha Rao, the Rajya Sabha MP of the BJP wrote a book on it. Many did not trust the EVM. And the matter is of trust. The voter must have the trust that his or her vote has reached where he wanted to. And whether the counting has been done correctly or not,” Digvijaya Singh said.
Digvijaya Singh maintained that today in the world, there are only five countries where voting is done through the VVPAT – India, Australia, Nigeria, Venezuela and Brazil.
“And in Australia, the software used is open for the people to check if it is working properly. But from the 2003 till now, why does the Election Commission not put the software in the public domain like in Australia? EC says, because it can be hacked. If it can be hacked, then you are accepting that it can be hacked. All the more it should be made open for the public domain to check,” Digvijaya Singh argued.
He claimed there are a number of questions that linger in the minds of the people. “It took me many years to make my party understand that something is happening in this. For the EVM, parts are manufactured by different companies and are assembled in our PSU. The chip they used to say is one-time programmable chip. It used to come from a microchip company in the US and one in Japan. Now with VVPAT, this has become a multiple programmable chip because every time it has to print a name and a symbol,” he explained.
“The question arising is, whether this is a one-time programmable chip or a multiple-programmable chip that is being used? ECI does not answer this question. No answer comes even with RTI. They say it is a stand-alone machine and not possible to hack it and there is no outside internet connectivity. But returning officers say that they are asked for their laptops,” Singh said.
Former chief minister Kamal Nath took to X and said, “Questions are constantly being raised regarding the reliability of EVM machines in the Indian election process. Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh along with technical experts presented the demonstration of tampering of dummy EVM machine in Bhopal in a press conference today. The journalists present there pressed the button of the dummy EVM and found that not only the vote count but also the slip received from the VVPAT could be changed.”
Kamal Nath further added, “This simply means that the possibility of tampering with the vote cast by an Indian citizen cannot be ruled out. Therefore, it has become necessary to change the voting system to strengthen the Indian democracy and ensure 100% voting rights for the citizens of India. EVMs should be removed and elections should be conducted through ballot papers. And if elections are to be conducted through EVMs, then the voter should get the vote slip in his hand, which the person should put in the ballot box and this slip should be counted.”
Meanwhile, state BJP president VD Sharma reacted strongly to the Congress’ allegations. “The Congress party and its leaders have been blaming EVMs to hide the failure of their leadership. From the wave we are seeing it is clear that the country supports the nationalist-oriented policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP,” VD Sharma said. “The Congress and its allies are going to face a crushing defeat in the Lok Sabha elections. Therefore, Congress leader Digvijay Singh has already started looking for excuses for this defeat, because he wants to save his party’s leadership and the Gandhi family from the stigma of defeat,” he said.
Sharma also asked if the Congress party won the elections in Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Telangana by hacking the EVMs.
Addressing a press conference in state capital on Wednesday, Digvijaya Singh with a dummy EVM tried to prove that tampering is possible.
He also alleged that who will win the election is decided by the software, not the people. He further alleged that the ECI does not work with impartiality.
The veteran Congress leader argued that it took a long time for him to convince his party that EVM tampering is possible. Digvijaya Singh’s allegation comes less than three months to the Lok Sabha elections.
Technocrat Sam Pitroda has also called a virtual press conference with the international and Indian media on Thursday to discuss the EVM and VVPAT voting system.
“The 24 political parties of the INDIA bloc submitted a memorandum and asked ECI to give us time for a meeting. It’s more than six months and they have not given us the time? Is this impartiality?” Digvijaya Singh asked.
“It is my allegation on the EC that it is working under the pressure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP. Take whatever action you have to on me. Put whichever software or hardware you want to use. But it is my right that my vote should reach where I intend it should go to,” Digvijaya said.
The senior leader gave a demonstration on how EVM tampering affects the voting. Digvijaya Singh’s claim was supported by former chief minister Kamal Nath while the state BJP said that allegations of EVM tampering is to hide the failures of the BJP leaders.
“India is known as the Mother of democracy and in this country our constitutional right of voting means I can vote where I want with secrecy and the counting should be done correctly. From 2003 to 2012, the same EVMs worked which Lal Krishna Advani complained against and GVL Narasimha Rao, the Rajya Sabha MP of the BJP wrote a book on it. Many did not trust the EVM. And the matter is of trust. The voter must have the trust that his or her vote has reached where he wanted to. And whether the counting has been done correctly or not,” Digvijaya Singh said.
Digvijaya Singh maintained that today in the world, there are only five countries where voting is done through the VVPAT – India, Australia, Nigeria, Venezuela and Brazil.
“And in Australia, the software used is open for the people to check if it is working properly. But from the 2003 till now, why does the Election Commission not put the software in the public domain like in Australia? EC says, because it can be hacked. If it can be hacked, then you are accepting that it can be hacked. All the more it should be made open for the public domain to check,” Digvijaya Singh argued.
He claimed there are a number of questions that linger in the minds of the people. “It took me many years to make my party understand that something is happening in this. For the EVM, parts are manufactured by different companies and are assembled in our PSU. The chip they used to say is one-time programmable chip. It used to come from a microchip company in the US and one in Japan. Now with VVPAT, this has become a multiple programmable chip because every time it has to print a name and a symbol,” he explained.
“The question arising is, whether this is a one-time programmable chip or a multiple-programmable chip that is being used? ECI does not answer this question. No answer comes even with RTI. They say it is a stand-alone machine and not possible to hack it and there is no outside internet connectivity. But returning officers say that they are asked for their laptops,” Singh said.
Former chief minister Kamal Nath took to X and said, “Questions are constantly being raised regarding the reliability of EVM machines in the Indian election process. Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh along with technical experts presented the demonstration of tampering of dummy EVM machine in Bhopal in a press conference today. The journalists present there pressed the button of the dummy EVM and found that not only the vote count but also the slip received from the VVPAT could be changed.”
Kamal Nath further added, “This simply means that the possibility of tampering with the vote cast by an Indian citizen cannot be ruled out. Therefore, it has become necessary to change the voting system to strengthen the Indian democracy and ensure 100% voting rights for the citizens of India. EVMs should be removed and elections should be conducted through ballot papers. And if elections are to be conducted through EVMs, then the voter should get the vote slip in his hand, which the person should put in the ballot box and this slip should be counted.”
Meanwhile, state BJP president VD Sharma reacted strongly to the Congress’ allegations. “The Congress party and its leaders have been blaming EVMs to hide the failure of their leadership. From the wave we are seeing it is clear that the country supports the nationalist-oriented policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP,” VD Sharma said. “The Congress and its allies are going to face a crushing defeat in the Lok Sabha elections. Therefore, Congress leader Digvijay Singh has already started looking for excuses for this defeat, because he wants to save his party’s leadership and the Gandhi family from the stigma of defeat,” he said.
Sharma also asked if the Congress party won the elections in Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Telangana by hacking the EVMs.
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