Can tell you 10 ways to rig EVMs, says Arvind Kejriwal
Kejriwal alleged that the EC was “enacting drama in the name of elections” to ensure BJP victory in all the polls.
New Delhi: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has been vociferously raising the issue of alleged EVM manipulation, claimed that there are many ways to tamper with the electronic voting machines.
Speaking to a news channel, Mr Kejriwal said, “I am an IIT Kharagpur graduate...I can tell you 10 ways how EVMs can be tampered. The EC is doing it intentionally... Why are they brushing the allegations under the carpet?”
He also questioned the Election Commission’s credibility over the issue of “rigged” EVMs by accusing it of being biased towards the Bharatiya Janta Party and even went on to hint at a possibility of the companies manufacturing EVMs being involved in their tampering. “EVMs can be influenced if a bug or a Trojan horse is inserted in its chip. Only two companies — one in US and one in Japan — manufacture the chips. What can you do when the bug is inserted in the source. What can you do if the company is influenced,” he asked.
The State Election Commission, however, said that the generation-1 EVMs, brought in for the municipal polls here, are “foolproof” and the programme used in them “cannot be manipulated.” The process is fairly randomised and so the programme used in these machines cannot be manipulated to benefit any one candidate or party.
“Also, these machines are not networked either by wire or wirelessly to any other machine or system. So, there is no possibility of its data corruption,” state election commissioner S.K. Srivastava said.
The CM, who has been vociferous about the vulnerability of the EVMs said unless the people fought against “BJP’s control over the EVMs”, democracy can’t be saved. He also claimed that the EC in its reply to a Right to Information (RTI) query, has said that it “doesn’t have the capacity to read the code embedded in the chip of a EVM”.
The Delhi CM also said that the poll panel was synonymous to the blind King Dhritarashtra of the epic “Mahabharata” and dared it to make its findings on the tampering allegations public.
“Wherever in India the EVMs have malfunctioned, there is only one issue — no matter which button you press, the vote goes to the BJP. And every time the commission says there is no problem with the EVMs. Why are they (EC) brushing everything under the carpet? Had EC gone for a technical probe and put the finding in public domain, people’s faith in it would have been restored,” he said.
He alleged that the Election Commission was “enacting drama in the name of elections” to ensure BJP victory in all the polls. “The BJP has total control over the EVMs and unless we all including the media fight it out, we will not be able to save democracy, save the country,” Mr Kejriwal said.
A defiant Mr Kejriwal also rejected the assertions that his party was hiding behind tampering allegations to cover up its dismal performance in the recent polls including the Rajouri Garden assembly seat bypoll in Delhi, where its candidate faced the ignominy of forfeiting his deposit.
“We have made 100 mistakes... 200 mistakes... we will introspect. But EVM tampering is a fact and can we remain blind to that,” he said asserting the results will have no impact on the party’s prospects in the April 23 elections to the three municipal corporations in the national Capital.
He attributed his party’s drubbing in the bypoll to people’s anger over party MLA Jarnail Singh resigning in the middle of his term to contest the February 4 Punjab assembly elections. He also flayed the Delhi Election Commission for bringing “EVMs from the junkyard” for the Delhi civic polls.