Within 2 days of defending PM Narendra Modi on the EVM (electronic voting machine) issue, propagandist Ajit Anjum has now said that PM Modi had doubted the EVMs in the past. He expressed his agreement to this allegation during an interaction with Mahmood Pracha in a YouTube video on 5th January. In this video, Mahmood Pracha was talking about his latest movement wherein he is demanding 50 EVMs from the election commission to prove that EVMs can be hacked. On 3rd January, Ajit Anjum shared a fact check that showed how such allegations against Modi are false.
During this talk, at 20:17 in the YouTube video, Mahmood Pracha said, “Every political party in India has doubted EVM at some point in time. Even our prime minister Narendra Modi doubted it.” Reacting to this with a nod, Ajit Anjum said, “Yes, before 2014.” Interestingly, it was Ajit Anjum who defended such allegations against Narendra Modi just 2 days ago.
On 3rd January, an X account named Prakash Raj shared a clipped video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in which he was seen saying that even the developed countries in the world use ballot papers for voting. In the caption of the post, Prakash Raj wrote, “I would like to tell truck drivers, blocking the roads won’t help. Get EVMs banned, that’s it. Look, this old man is also saying the same thing.”
ट्रक ड्राइवरों से निवेदन है सड़क जाम करने से कुछ नही होगा।#EVM_BAN करवाइए बस।
— Prakash Raj.. Actor (@prakash__rj) January 2, 2024
देखो ये बुज़ुर्ग भी बोल रहा pic.twitter.com/VPObp0lYfG
Presenting a link to the fact-check report, Ajit Anjum replied to this post, “For your information, let me tell you that this video is incomplete. This is from a rally in Moradabad in 2016. If you listen completely, you will know that Modi is only advocating EVM in this speech.”
आपकी जानकारी के लिए बता दूँ कि ये वीडियो अधूरा है . 2016 में मुरादाबाद की एक रैली का है . पूरा सुनेंगे तो पता चलेगा कि मोदी इस भाषण में ईवीएम की वकालत ही कर रहे हैं . https://t.co/YHeAq5gWmi https://t.co/8Ccm4gLLFE
— Ajit Anjum (@ajitanjum) January 3, 2024
In the fact-check shared by Ajit Anjum, it is explained how Narendra Modi is often accused by his opponents in politics as well as by his opponents in media that he would oppose the EVMs before coming to power in 2014. Further, it is also explained that the video often cited to bolster this claim is not from before 2014 era, but it is from 2016.
In 2016, PM Modi addressed a Parivartan rally in Moradabad. In this rally, he talked about India’s progress in terms of the use of electronic voting machines compared to the United States using ballot papers. He said at 55:08 in the full video shared from his YouTube channel, “Some people claim our country is poor, our people are uneducated, they don’t know anything. Brothers and sisters, when there is an election in educated countries, the ballot paper is still used today. People first read names and then put labels. This happens in America too. This is India, those whom you call illiterate, poor, they know the process of voting by pressing a button.”
The fact-check by Boom Live has debunked the claim that PM Modi opposed the EVMs before 2014. For this, it also proved that the video used to accuse Modi is doctored and from a rally held in 2016. Ajit Anjum used the same fact-check report to counter a similar allegation. Just two days after this, Ajit Anjum contradicted himself on his YouTube channel. He nodded to Mahmood Pracha and said that PM Narendra Modi expressed doubts about EVM before 2014.
