Election results are turning into a nightmare for a few candidates election after elections. And for others they are simply shocking and stunning. Look at the results of Jayalalitha’s party and those of the Communists’. If the former did not win even a single seat, the Marxists won by a historically unprecedented high margin. That was the so-called verdict of the people in the 2004 Loksabha elections. Thanks to our Electronic Voting Machines, Jayalalitha even filed a case alleging manipulation of the EVMs to suit the particular party. However, the courts are still not putting their best foot forward to nail the problem.

Engineers from IIT have already reported that EVMs can be manipulated (The Indian Express, May, 2004). This is how it can be done, they say. Firstly, the machines could be so programmed that for the first hour or so it would work effectively. After that pressing any button would result in registering of votes in favor of a particular candidate in accordance with the pre-program in the EVM. Secondly, after the day’s elections are done, nearly 70% of the votes cast can be transferred in favor of a desired candidate by a mere press of the button. Lastly, and this one is most shocking, the EVM can be manipulated through a remote device. It works like this: if the magnetic resonance number of the EVM which registers the vote is known, then from a neighboring building, adjacent to the strong room where the EVMs are kept locked, sealed and guarded, votes can be transferred with impunity. Now, if this turns out to be true (I hope not!) then our democracy must be saved and the culprits must be brought to the book. We should not allow the EVM wielders to take charge of  booth-capturing from the earlier version of the Lathi and Gun wielders.

Now, there is no smoke without fire. Leaders like L.K.Advani too have demanded that we should be careful with EVMs and that use of ballot papers should be preferred. The election commission continues to claim that the EVMs are tamper-proof. The Supreme Court too has asked the petitioner on the EVM’s efficacy to visit the EC and lodge a complaint. Why the court sent the petitioner back to the EC is still a mystery. Here is a citizen who has come with a complaint of the manipulation of a democratic instrument, the EVM, to suit vested interests and expressing doubts of a free and fair election in our democracy, but who was sent back to the same authority to resolve the issue. Would it not have been a better approach by the court for speedy disposal of this complaint by asking the election commission to come clean by filing an affidavit? The courts can still act suo moto in this issue and ask for the Election Commissioner’s views and put them on record and finally give a verdict which is fair to all concerned about democracy.

As for the election Commission, it should immediately arrange a demonstration on the TV, inviting the experts who claim that they can tamper with the EVMs in more than one way, and prove them wrong. The Election Commissioner should come clean on this issue no matter what the consequences.

Otherwise it only means that booth-capturing has now become centralized through the use of technology by those who have access to it and the knowledge to abuse it. If people’s votes can be altered by the press of a button, then God save our Democracy!

Free and fair elections are necessary for the survival of democracy. The country cannot afford to compromise on this process. Look at the charges on our Election Commissioner, Mr.Chawla. He has been charged with being biased towards the Congress by no less a person than the earlier election Commissioner, Mr.Gopalakrishnan, the then constitutional authority. Mr.Chawla continues to function as the head of elections. It’s like if a judge is accused in a murder case as one who is aiding and abetting the crime through conduct or circumstance, he is also expected to deliver a fair judgment. It would have been just right for this constitutional authority to have stepped down, not just on moral grounds, but to uphold the spirit of fairness and justice in conduct of constitutional affairs and to stay away till the matter was settled. Many judges have done it in the past by relinquishing their posts to uphold justice and equity. People who have followed the judiciary during the Emergency would certainly recall this.

During the recently held Lok-Sabha election all pointers were towards manipulation of EVMs, accusation of bias of the EC and so on. To top it all, the possibility that the NREGA spending which could be selectively and arbitrarily directed to districts where the ruling party, the Congress could get the advantage of spending as well was also in the air. Surely the situations and circumstances were too obvious to be ignored by the EC.

I am skeptical of the victory of the congress, the turn around which surprised even the Congress stalwarts, as the reports and the statements of the spokesperson of the party indicated. Rahul Gandhi’s visits to the dalits and Sonia Gandhi’s speeches and promises may have played their role. But the surprise the EVMs had thrown must be taken a serious note of immediate remedial actions must taken to save democracy from being hijacked by rogues. It would be naïve to believe that the EVM manipulators have not marginally favored the candidates of the other side in order to purchase their silence. Thus it seems each of them had a field day according to one’s might.

I am a little worried about the trend of the strong supporting the wrongs. The cover-up news about foreign countries praising our use of the EVMs must be taken at what it is worth. The Election Commissioner must clear the smoke screens and let the verdict of the people be as it was intended. Let’s have a fair EVM and a free and fair democracy. Is it too much to ask?