The Congress on Monday demanded that the Election Commission (EC) revert to the old system of paper ballots till the time all Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were linked to voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines, and quoted a Supreme Court verdict in this regard.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks that the opposition “fabricated” the issue of alleged EVM tampering and instead accused the government of not being interested in having VVPAT machines or giving the EC money to buy them.
‘Silence by PM’
Citing the 15-page SC verdict of October 8, 2013, in the matter of Subramanian Swamy versus Union of India, Mr. Singhvi also accused the government of violating the judgement.
“Today there is no answer, only stunning silence is the answer by the PM. There is no answer to a simple question that till such time you fulfil the Supreme Court mandate, why don’t you have paper ballot. Otherwise, instantly give ₹3,000 crore to the EC and within a few months have VVPAT for each EVM,” he told reporters.
Mr. Singhvi said that since the SC verdict nearly 30 months ago, only 58,000 EVMs have been attached with a VVPAT against the total of 16 lakh EVMs.
“At the current rate, it will take nearly 150 years to have VVPAT in all constituencies in India. If the SC says that paper trail is important, then till there is VVPAT in EVMs, should we not go back to a paper ballot?” he asked.
Mr. Singhvi also quoted a 2010 study of University of Michigan, USA, that stated that “India’s EVMs do not provide transparency. So voters and election officials have no reason to be confident”.
No talk of boycott
Asked if Congress would boycott elections in case the government did not meet its demand of VVPATs, Mr. Singhvi said he would not at all suggest that at this stage.
“You are going far ahead of the story. At the moment, there is absolutely no reason for balanced, right thinking people, who value democracy, to not agree to our most reasonable demand and therefore, let us not speculate,” he said.
