Democracy at Risk! Can we trust our Electronic Voting Machines?

With that provocative title, you'd be thinking this is something that Kejriwal, in his infinite wisdom, would have said. But sadly no, that's not the case. To know what I am talking about, read on.

Arvind Kejriwal and AAP just suffered a humiliating defeat and was recently spotted blaming the EVM's for the party's poor showing. And to give him company, Mayawati moved the courts to investigate the tampering of EVMs.

Predictably, the Internet broke into a feeding frenzy and ridicule and shaming of the 2 'sore' losers began in right earnest. And of course, the comparisons with the mighty BJP began, wherein the BJP supporters questioned whether BJP has ever whined like this when they lost in 2009 or during the Delhi elections.

This post isn't about whether Kejriwal and Mayawati are right in blaming the EVMs. This post is about how BJP whined in the exact same way, some years back when they were similarly routed by the Congress. And why mocking fun of Kejriwal and claiming a 'holier than thou' stance really doesn't really sit right with the BJP or its supporters.

BJP didn't just whine, they whined very vociferously. They put together a forum for promoting "Verifiability, Transparency and Accountability" in Indian Elections and named it a very unimaginative 'VeTA'. VeTA is still very much alive and kicking and the name of their website is an even more unimaginative http://www.indianevm.com/ .

GVL Narasimha Rao is the President of VeTA. Not to be confused with the other Narasimha Rao, this guy is a, wait for it, current national spokesperson of BJP. Not to be satisfied with a forum and website, he then went ahead and wrote a book titled "Democracy At Risk! Can We Trust Our Electronic Voting Machines?". And the book begins with a foreword by Shri L.K. Advani and a message from Shri N. Chandrababu Naidu, no less.

You can download a copy from http://www.indianevm.com/book_democracy_at_risk_2010.pdf or buy one here https://www.snapdeal.com/product/democracy-at-risk-can-we/671276023038

No mention of the official BJP anywhere, though. They were smart that way. Poor Kejriwal has to do all the dirty work himself.


And then of course we have this video by Subramnian Swamy where he goes ahead and tells all of us why EVMs are not the best way to vote.



There was a case as well which ended with the Supreme Court agreeing that EVMs in their current form are not fool proof and asked the EC to implement a paper trail. Trials are still in progress and we are yet to get the paper trail enabled voting process.

LINK : http://www.livemint.com/Politics/hlvqLXrcOR3jcrejulwz2I/Vote-and-get-a-receipt.html

So you see, Kejriwal isn't the first person to complain about the EVMs. BJP have 'been there and done that' and its supporters mocking the current losers is hypocrisy at its finest.


Moral of the story : When he couldn't get the grapes, the fox said the grapes are sour. But then, the fox that came before him had said exactly the same thing.