Congress leader Pratap Singh Khachariyawas on Tuesday said that the Election Commission of India should announce a reward for hacking Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) adding that if anyone successfully hacks the device in front of it then this counting mechanism should be replaced immediately.
“If so many questions are being raised on EVM, after these elections processes, Election Commission should come forward and place the EVM (before people) – that come and try to hack it in the presence of security in a hall. Who is uploading programming in the EVM? Election Commission. You don’t give the same programming to the candidates,” Pratap Singh Khachariyawas told ANI.
Asserting that the poll body should be transparent on this subject, Khachariyawas said, “But the Election Commission doesn’t want to do that. So, they should do that – the truth will come out. Why is the Election Commission adamant? EC should announce a reward for anyone who can hack it and if someone can hack it then change it.”
Notably, the Election Commission in 2017 invited the political parties to participate in the EVM Challenge. Only two opposition parties–NCP and CPI(M) had accepted the challenge, however, they backed out from it in the later stages.
Amid the opposition parties raising concerns over the counting process of the votes, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Monday said that the entire counting mechanism is robust and the whole process is codified in a certain manner that no error can be found in the whole procedure.
“Entire counting process is absolutely robust. We don’t think anywhere there is a robust system like it. Every part is decided. The whole process is codified. Micro observers are in place. There cannot be any mistake in this process. Lakhs of people including counting officials, counting agents, micro-observers, ROs/AROs, Observers present during the world’s largest counting exercise. Before the elections, EVMs were randomised. All candidates and agents were present to observe that who were present at the booth,” CEC Rajiv Kumar said at a press conference.
When the ECI had challenged Opposition parties to come and prove their claims of EVM hacking
The ‘EVM hacking’ is a dead horse that many Opposition parties and political activists have been beating for years, after the BJP came to power in 2014. In 2017, the Election Commission of India threw an open challenge to all parties to come and show how the EVMs can be hacked. None of the political parties turned up.
Back in 2017, the ECI’s challenge went un-taken. Of all the parties who have been making noise against EVMs, only the NCP and CPIM turned up, but they also said that they are not there to take the challenge but they just want to ‘understand the process’. In August, the ECI submitted in the Supreme Court that none of the political parties took the challenge and actually tried to demonstrate how the EVMs can be hacked. They just have been making noise about it.
EVMs are hack-proof, it has been clarified and proven time and again
Despite all the claims, it has to be noted that EVMs and VVPATs are safe and cannot be manipulated. Interestingly, no one came forward when ECI organised a hackathon and challenged everyone to hack EVM machines.
Notably, VVPATs and EVMs are stand-alone machines. They are not connected to the internet. It significantly nullifies the chances of remote hacking. Furthermore, VVPATs provide a paper trail for each vote. The voters can verify it at the time of the elections and again after the election. All ballots are time-stamped, and all voting booths are under CCTV surveillance, making it impossible to manipulate the votes.
Last day of India’s massive electoral process, vote counting on June 4
The mammoth exercise to count votes polled for the Lok Sabha seats in the 2024 elections will begin today.
Results of the Assembly elections in Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh were held simultaneously with voting for the 543-member Lok Sabha. Results of 175 Assembly constituencies in Andhra Pradesh and 147 Assembly constituencies in Odisha and results of bypolls in 25 Assembly constituencies will also be declared today.
( With inputs from ANI)
