A basic human tendency is to see red where there’s none. The outcry of a section of political parties against the use of electronic voting machines or EVMs is exactly that. A demand is gaining ground that the nation should revert to ballot papers and avoid the
use of EVMs in future elections. Prima facie, this is like taking a giant leap backwards from a level the country has painstakingly reached. Curiously, this chorus from some political parties has come up in the backdrop of their having lost some key assembly polls in recent times. The blame is on the EVMs.
A word in defence of the EVMs does not mean they are tamper-proof. When technicalities are involved, possibilities of tampering cannot be ruled out. While basing one’s argument on this premise, it is also important that an attempt is made to prove that EVMs are unreliable. Despite repeated offers from the Election Commission, no political party or individual could so far demonstrate that EVMs can be tampered with. As long as this is not done, no strong argument can be advanced against the electronic system of voting.
To argue for a return to the highly expensive ballot paper mode is also to advocate an archaic system. Notably, the old system too was not tamper-proof, as had been demonstrated time and again in the past. In states like Bihar, it was not uncommon to find cases of massive fraud in the polling processes in areas where thugs and powerful
vested interests called all the shots. EVMs might or might not change such a scenario but a combination of EVMs and CCTVs could possibly create a better scenario. Technology is so advanced today that the results from EVMs can be released a minute
after the close of the voting. If not the present, the future holds such a promise.
An argument in favour of EVMs is the manner in which the Gujarat elections played out. The Opposition Congress party fought neck-and-neck till the last stage of the counting, and yielded ground to the ruling BJP there by a whisker. Had there been a possibility of tampering of EVMs by the ruling Govt – in this case the BJP, the results would have been different, also since the results there were a matter of personal prestige for Prime Minister, Modi. Punjab went the Congress way via EVMs; so did the Congress-JDU in Karnataka. Those arguing against EVMs therefore should conclusively demonstrate the flaws if any in the system. Technology, after all, is no one’s exclusive
preserve.