Taking its tirade against the Centre to new heights, 20 odd opposition parties demanded that electronic voting machines (EVM) should not be used in the 2019 elections. Instead of EVMs the opposition parties have put its faith on ballot papers. The parties have also formed a committee to take up the matter with the Election Commission. To justify the demand, former chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir Farooq Abdulla has spared no words advocating in favour of ballot papers. As a matter of fact, he even termed EVMs as thieves. But is there any real need to turn the wheel back?
This is not to argue that all changes are good. Some changes surely deliver expected results, while others need to be rectified. This is the simple way the world moves on and we all have accepted it. So before making such sweeping statements one has to keep in mind that machines have no brains. It works as it is programmed. So if there is any flaw in EVMs that is simply manmade. People will have to be more vigilant to prevent unscrupulous elements from tampering with EVMs. Otherwise simply by raising the demand to forbid the EVMs, the opposition parties are actually suggesting chopping of the head because of a headache.
Since its introduction during mid 90s, EVMs have always been the bone of contention between the ruling party and the opposition. The loser at the electoral battle has always found it handy to put the entire blame for its defeat on EVMs, without any introspection of the real cause. Here one should also not forget the fact that today the demand of banning EVMs is being raised by those who introduced it. In the past it was said that introduction of EVMs will save time and money and make the electoral process in the country more transparent. But if all such promises appear to be futile within a very short span of time, it can be concluded safely that there is something wrong with the users and not with the machine.
It is not the case that since the introduction of EVMs only the ruling parties have won the elections. In many elections the ruling party has lost badly. Most notable example to prove that EVMs are not at fault was the Assembly election results of West Bengal in 2011. Till then, Bengal was a Left citadel. Over three decades the Left ruled the State. In every election allegations were made about rigging. But no one could conquer the Left. Finally, in 2011, when the Left became unpopular in wake of Singur and Nandigram crisis, the ruling party got vanquished in elections. It’s an irony that the party which breached the Left citadel today is at the forefront of demanding ban on EVMs. It may also be noted that the ruling party at the Centre did not win last five Assembly elections held in the country.
All in all, there is no justification of banning EVMs in the name of electoral reforms. To make country’s electoral process free and fair, the political parties should reform themselves. The allegation that EVMs favour ruling parties came from the fact that while in power all parties tried to tamper with EVMs. If it works, the winning side finds no flaws in EVMs, while the losers put the entire blame on the machine. As it can’t speak, poor EVMs have to swallow all such unpleasant comments silently.
