Most importantly, the SC reinforced the credibility of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). (File Photo)
In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court (SC) dismissed the demands for 100 per cent verification of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips and rejected all the other pleas of the petitioners, including one which would take the country back to the system of paper ballots. Most importantly, the SC reinforced the credibility of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).
The Court came to this conclusion after conducting an in detail review of the administrative and technical safeguards of EVMs. It found EVMs to be “simple”, “secure” and “user friendly.” Further, the inclusion of the VVPAT slips as it stands today (where VVPAT slips of five randomly selected constituencies or segments would be counted to verify with the count of the EVM) was found to fortify the principle of vote verifiability.
The SC’s reasoning against returning to the ballot paper system is sound and merits attention. The Court recognised that any return to this archaic system would bring back booth capturing. This issue was eliminated by EVMs as they restrict the rate of vote casting to four votes per minute, which effectively prevents bogus voting.
Further, we must understand that paper ballot is an ineffective system, especially in a country like India with almost 97 crore voters.
What is worrying is that this campaign against EVMs is not a fact-driven critique. It is nothing more than a malicious attempt to attack the credibility of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose administration has been marked by tremendous electoral success.
In this regard, the allegations made by the petitioners in the courtroom and by Opposition leaders outside the courtroom lack not only consistency but also evidence. Worse, their narrative flips depending on their electoral fortunes.
For example, the Indian National Congress (INC) found no fault with the EVMs when it cruised to victory in the 2004 and 2009 general elections.
However, the same INC found faults with EVMs post 2014 when its electoral fortunes started to rapidly decline. Senior Congress leaders such as Digvijaya Singh claimed that votes are being stolen through hacking of EVMs. Weren’t INC’s claims against EVMs being easy to hack defeated when they emerged victorious in the 2018 Assembly Elections held in states such as Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan? The case of AAP is more intriguing.
It emerged victorious in the 2015 Delhi State Assembly Elections in which EVMs were deployed. And it tried to demonstrate the hacking of EVMs within the State Assembly in 2017 and thereafter went on to win the 2020 Delhi State Assembly Elections wherein EVMs were again deployed.
Through all of this, a worrying pattern emerges. At first, one could mistake these aspersions casted by the Opposition as a pattern of selective scepticism. On a closer examination, a deeper and darker strategy is unveiled.
This is focussed on the Opposition undermining the public’s trust in the electoral process to cover its repeated failures. Further, as the Opposition gears up for the results of the 2024 general elections, their old playbook of casting aspersions against EVMs is resurfacing.
It is clear that they are anticipating a defeat of great proportions and are already laying the ground to dispute the public’s verdict by discrediting EVMs. Fortunately, the SC’s timely decision negates this argument as the Court correctly reiterated that EVM’s supplemented by VVPATs provide a reliable, tamper-proof method of voting.
At this juncture, it might be beneficial for the Opposition to genuinely introspect. It would bode well for them to shift focus from concocting absurd and hopeless narratives and instead turn their energies towards addressing the real issues faced by the Indian electorate. Second, it is high time, the Opposition stops waging political battles in the SC: This case was yet another instance wherein it tried to fire a political bullet from the Court’s shoulder.
We can cast our vote through EVMs, pride ourselves in being part of free and fair elections and commend the ECI for the thankless job it has been carrying out.
The writer is Managing Partner Parinam Law Associates and Vice President, Mumbai BJP
