Spare the EVM Please

ODD AS IT may seem, in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha election, several senior opposition leaders, some ofwhom are currently part of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc, made the demand for a return to ballot paper a major campaign issue. A tele­vision channel report noted that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s visit to Delhi in August 2018 achieved opposition unity on a “crucial point”—to seek the use of ballot papers instead of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in the national election. The parties reported to be “on board” with the change included Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Par­ty, Nationalist Congress Party, Rashtriya Janata Party, Aam Admi Party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham, Telugu Desam Party, the Left parties and Trinamool Congress. Even Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ally Shiv Sena was reported to have doubts about the fairness of results delivered through EVMs.

It is telling that some key proponents of the return-to-ballot movement are now part of the BJP-led Na­tional Democratic Alliance. But that would be getting ahead of the story. As the 2019 election approached, many of these leaders went to the Supreme Court demanding that EVMs be done away with. A senior Congress leader told the media with all seriousness that he has received reports about entire families voting for the party but none of their votes being re­corded. He helpfully referred to places “like Nagpur and Uttar Pradesh” to make his point. It is not surpris­ing that the opposition leaders chose to disregard the Election Commission’s efforts to demonstrate the in­tegrity of EVMs, including offering hackers a chance to manipulate the machines. The fairly obvious point that EVMs are not connected to any wireless device, and therefore cannot be hacked, did not impress the opposition. Nor did the fact that any likely conspiracy to subvert EVMs would need a vast network of co-conspirators deter them. In hindsight, what is really astounding is that the opposition leaders actually believed that this was an election issue.

While the anti-EVM parties spent time in court, BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to voters seeking a validation of the government’s ambitious programmes to construct houses and toilets and deliver electricity and cooking gas connections to households. Journalists fanning out in the countryside reported meeting ben­eficiaries of these schemes who spoke of the changes in their lives. The support for BJP translated into votes for the party and Modi won a second successive majority with an enhanced margin. At no point did the result seem a divergence from the public mood. The EVMs are stored in strong rooms under guard and this is the case everywhere, including opposition-ruled states. So, if BJP won even in non-BJP states, could it be said that this happened under the very eye of opposition-led governments? There is no ‘master switch’ that can be diddled to remotely issue commands to alter EVM results. Before and after the 2019 election, the opposition won victories in major states like West Bengal and Karnataka. Here, too, the result was what voters desired.

If the conspiracy theorists are to be believed, then the mas­termind is awfully clever. The shadowy figure allows certain parties to win some state Assembly elections but ensures a dif­ferent Lok Sabha result. The sheer improbability of the anti- EVM narrative is staggering. Besieged by the opposition in 2019, the Supreme Court ruled there would be a paper trail verification of VVPATs (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail) of five booths in each Assembly segment. The EVMs did well and there was no mismatch between the trail and the vote count after a physi­cal count of 20,625 slips. Starting with the late 1990s, EVMs began to be used in state elections. Then the 2004 Lok Sabha polls saw the machines being used in all parliamentary constituen­cies. EVMs have been a staple of India’s electoral process. The Election Commission has regularly improved processes while the ma­chines have become less bulky and more suited for Indian condi­tions like the current summer.

Yet, opposition leaders raise doubts about EVMs during ral­lies, claiming that India’s democracy is under threat as even the results cannot be trusted. This time round, political parties have not gone to court. The task is being carried out by an activist-lawyer and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADA). ADA has re­cently scored a success in persuading the Supreme Court to scrap the electoral bond path of funding political parties and order disclosure of purchasers and receivers of such bonds. It is another matter that do­ing away with the bonds has not made election funding any more transparent as there is no alternative in place. And as far as disclosures relating to purchasers of the bonds go, the anticipated connection between India’s biggest corporates and the Modi government failed to materi­alise. For the rest, the alleged connections between bond purchasers and govern­ments are diffused and applies as much to the opposition. ADA went back to court with EVMs in its sights.

The Supreme Court has found no merit in the current appeal against EVMs, pointing out that suspicions and innuendos can­not substitute facts. It is also possible the court may have drawn a cautionary lesson from the far-from-satisfactory results of the electoral bonds ruling. The important point, however, is not that the court did not pay heed to an ill-founded challenge. The reason why EVMs are constantly in the crosshairs of a set of activists and some opposition parties is to undercut the legitimacy of the elec­tion result they feel could favour BJP. The purported motive to make elections more accountable is a red herring. The petitioners cannot be unaware that paper ballots would take India back to the days when political parties rigged elections in their regions of influence. Yet, though BJP might be the intended victim, the real damage is to India’s democracy despite EVMs ensuring results are available on the day of counting itself. Compare this with days and even weeks of ballot counting in advanced nations like the US.

It is a matter of relief that the concerted effort to discredit EVMs has not affected the trust of voters. The trustworthiness of EVMs does not figure in conversations with voters. This is not an issue at all. Conversations with people interviewed by the media in cities, towns and villages are all about the claims and record of parties vying for office and a keen assessment of current and future prospects. The first round of polling in 102 parliamentary constituencies saw a fall of 3 per cent voting as compared to 2019. But at 66 per cent, the polling is not low by any standards and, bar­ring a few constituencies, voting passed without incident. India’s democracy will survive the efforts to defame it. But the parties who rake up the EVM bogey face a more difficult task. They need to find a better reason for their lack of electoral success.

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