Life Beyond EVMs

• Doubts over efficacy of Electronic Voting Machines being used in Indian Elections since 1999, are being raised for some time now. There are quite a few petitions which have been filed across various courts in the country challenging the validity of EVMs in the process and have prayed the courts for direction that the old system of paper ballots be reintroduced. I have read one such petition, filed by among others, one Mr Anil Chawla, post the November 2008 state assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, where he, alongwith a few others make a case quite strong enough to be looked into.
  
  I remember the days before EVMs were introduced. In case of Lok Sabha elections, it would be noon by the time the first trends would start coming in, that too from smaller constituencies like Goa and the entire counting process would get at least two days to get over. One of the reasons for the delay was on account of the mixing of ballot papers from across booths, such that it became difficult to identify the direction of voting at a particular polling booth. With EVMs, things changed of course. Now, instead of agonizing waits, we can see the political spectrum of the country changing colors in a few hours flat.
  
  That said, it is distressing to see that the Congress and a few of the usual suspects in the media have been so dismissive of the concerns expressed by the opposition parties on the safety features of the EVMs. While I cannot comment on the efficacy of the EVMs at all, I’ll certainly want to comment on a few of the points which are raised by the Congress and the media brigade to dismiss the apprehensions of the opposition
  
  That EVMs are faulty is a complaint of the losers – So? Which sane person would expect winners to complaint that they won through unethical means? Has any winner abdicated his seat on this count ever? Or has any party accused of booth capturing accepted that they had indeed intimidated the voters? It is a natural flow of justice that the aggrieved seeks recourse while the beneficiary / accused tries to question the creditability and motive of the appellant? So what is different in this case? Do we really expect Congress to move courts asking for revert to paper ballot or do we expect the CPM to own up booth capturing, something which it has been accused of for ages?
  
  EVMs have bought prestige to the Nation – Bah!! Double Bah!! Will Indians grow up and accept that there is more to life then empty praise. It is a self fulfilling delusion that something ‘brings’ prestige to the Nation and that the Nation’s ‘prestige’ is so fragile that questioning anything will ruin it forever. When countries much more advanced then us technologically had no qualms in discarding a system which they felt they couldn’t trust, what is so special about us? Why do we need to build holy cows all around when we don’t care for the actual cow?
  
  EVMs declare the results faster – So? Answer a simple question. What is the purpose behind conduct of elections? To gauge the people’s mandate or to declare the mandate faster? If it is the second, then I rest my case but owing to the beliefs which have been inculcated all along, i.e., that democracy means rule by the people and for the people I have all along believed that the elections are a tool to gauge people’s will. If people’s will is being subverted, are they elections in the true sense? Why is then there a history of masses agitating against ‘rigged’ election results across the world, on a country wide scale in Bangladesh or Iran or on a smaller scale in West Bengal and Bihar? Let the result declaration process take a week. Only let it be what people have willed and not otherwise.
  
  EVMs have helped prevent rigging – Huh! This is indeed hilarious. It is like saying that Bofors Guns helped Indian soldiers evict Kargil intruders so the scam associated with Bofors should not be investigated. Besides that, rigging has come down more on account of greater security and better booth management by the EC. EC must certainly be commended for better and cleaner elections but to credit the EVMs for that is indeed too much.
  
  EVMs cannot be tampered with – Well, cannot comment on this in particular but would seek refuge in my knowledge that there is nothing such as perfect security. Even the most secure defense systems are routinely hacked across the world and here we are talking of a small, simple machine which is used in thousands. To turn a blind eye to the possibility that some, if not all, machines can be tampered with, either at the time of production, voting or counting is foolhardy. Moreover, this does not explain that how Maneka Gandhi and P Chidambaram won their respective seats on recount when they had initially been declared losers? If the system is electronically foolproof, it would not have allowed accretion of a single vote to either of these candidates. Further, there have been quite a few instances of particular candidates winning 100% of votes polled at an EVM. In an election, which was not driven by a strong sentiment or a wave, such happenings are certainly not normal and defy the rules of probability.
  
  
  This is not to say that the General Elections 2009 were rigged. This is only to point out that when a large part of the political space in the country has developed doubts regarding a tool of election, it is proper that the cause of concern be investigated and doubts set at rest. The opposition has as much a stake in the running of the country as the ruling party and the simple fact of their defeat cannot dismiss their concerns as unfounded. We are a democracy and people’s will needs to be respected. Let us not get into a state where the credibility of our system becomes so suspect that the losers start taking to streets disputing the results. Let us remain a successful democracy and not a wannabe Iran.