New Delhi: Opposition parties will put up a united front in the Rajya Sabha Wednesday, during a discussion on electoral reforms, to corner the Narendra Modi government on reliability and authenticity of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM).
A total of 14 parties including the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party are coming together, ThePrint has learnt.
This is the first time in the ongoing session that the Opposition parties have joined hands to raise an issue in the Upper House. Till now, there has been little floor coordination among the parties.
A notice was initially given by TMC and 10 other parties to hold discussion on electoral reforms in the Rajya Sabha. While TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien will initiate the discussion, other opposition leaders participating in it are Congress leader Kapil Sibal, Satish Chandra Mishra of the BSP, SP’s Ram Gopal Yadav and D Raja of the CPI.
Derek O’Brien said discussions would not be limited to Modi’s ‘one nation, one election’ idea.
“There is more to electoral reforms than just this idea. We will discuss other issues such as tampering of EVMs, paper ballots, electoral bonds, etc”, said the TMC leader.
Addressing an all-party meeting before the first session of the 17th Lok Sabha, Modi had invited presidents of all opposition parties to discuss his ‘one nation, one election’ proposal. He also set up a committee to give suggestions on the idea.
EVMs and VVPAT tally
Opposition parties have been raking up the issue of EVM tampering for a while now. In the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, several parties had made EVM tampering their main poll issue.
Representatives of over 20 parties had earlier requested the Election Commission (EC) to ensure mandatory authentication of EVM results with voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) at 50 per cent of the polling booths in each constituency, for all state and Lok Sabha elections.
The EC had made tallying of VVPAT slips with EVM results mandatory in 5 per cent of the polling booths in each Assembly constituency for all state and Lok Sabha elections.
Also read: Would have attended PM Modi’s all-party meeting if it was on EVMs, says Mayawati
The Govt suomto ought to help opposition parties in National interest and should have asked for 100% vvpat….if there is no fruitful gain to the Government or party in power . ECI integrity ought to be transparent and made tangible .All counting of vote must be under live telecasted by all channel participating in it. The candidate symbol inscribed ought to be led lighted in lieu of present system.
Sidelining or delinking any reference of the interim budget with the fulfledged budget skillfully created a puzzle of confusion for media & others because this is a Bahi-khata (बही-खाता ) which means recording of receipt and payment on an act incurred ,its reflected in written form contrary to the previously presentation which was budget ( estimate ) meant for receipt and expenditure proposals in advance considered by GOvt.
But claverly Government runs on celebrated maxim ” create binafide confusion and take advantage as per need and time based occassions….
1. One can understand why many political parties are opposed to use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), but their opposition is based on illogical grounds. 2. All opposition parties should accept that EVMs are here to stay as it is just not possible to go back to use of ballot papers. 3. As regards suggestion-cum-proposal of “one nation-one election” or “ONOE: made by PM Narendra Modi, one can understand if opposition parties feel that ONOE is against principles of federalism. 4. My query in this context is this: why are those opposed to ONOE opposed to implementation of election reforms? Therefore, I think all the opposition parties’ leaders who are united in opposing PM Narendra Modi’s ONOE proposal should not delay positive response to election reforms. My wish list of reforms is here: (a) First is compulsory audit of accounts of all political parties. Such audit must be made compulsory. (b) Next is that all legal cases pending against ministers, MLAs, MPs, etc. should be tried in Special Fast Track Courts (SFTCs) on a top priority basis. (c) Third reform is about declaration of assets by candidates (individuals who contest elections). At present Election Commission of India (EC)) merely takes such declarations on record and does no scrutiny. I think ECI should be given enough powers to do a compressive scrutiny of a candidate’s declaration of assets and further such declaration must be supported by details as regards sources of income of the candidate. If ECI finds that declaration and other information submitted by a candidate is false, ECI must be empowered to prosecute such candidate and legal cases in such matters should be tried in SFTCs mentioned above. (d) We know that prevailing ‘First Past the Post’ (FPTP) rule on basis of which a winner of an election is decided distorts a reality as a candidate securing as low as 20% of total votes can be a winner. We need to consider scope for system of proportional representation so that distortions created by FPTP can be minimized.
Most of the time the debate on EVMs starts with politics and ends with politics. I have yet to see an in depth technical debate on Indian EVM. EC has told us that Indian EVM has no connectivity to outside environment either through internet or any other means. However, I am sure of one thing that EVM has a port to connect to VVPAT. What type of port is it? Whether serial or parallel or proprietary. This port definitely communicates with VVPAT. Therefore, the claim that EVM has no external connectivity is false. However, can this port be used to hack or manipulate the data stored in EVM has to explained that EC has not done yet. Is EVM’s electronics completely sealed from external radio signals? This sealing is generally done by enclosing the electronic circuit in metallic box that can stop electromagnetic waves to pass through. There should also be questions on the electronics inside such as the photo graph of the electronics board. There is no need to explain it. It’s required to view if there is any component that can receive or transmit wireless signals. Also EC should permit black box testing of EVM through the port that connects to VVPAT.
If opposition’s doubts are genuine, they should demand technical debate on EVM.
Would opposition focus on technical side of EVM debate this time?
With enough Men, Money, Motivation, anything can be compromised, that’s a simple law of security.
Said that, the cost of hacking “4 MILLION” EVM’s (4 followed by 6 Zeros) that were used in the last election — and to do it in a manner that no one finds out — is close to IMPOSSIBLE. If any politician could pull that off, he/she deserves a Nobel prize for sciences, Oscars award for acting, Turing award for computing, and Fields medal for mathematical brilliance — all together.
Of course, this EVM drama is politics. What else should Mamta, Mayavati, and Rahul say to their followers, that why didn’t people vote for them? EVMs are an easy scapegoat.