New Delhi: Two former Chief Election Commissioners and various constitutional law experts News18 spoke to have dismissed AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj’s attempt to ‘prove’ on the floor of Delhi Assembly that Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) can be tampered with. However, they differed with each other on ethics of the demo and its impact.
Former CEC N Gopalaswami told News18 that “though there was no question of legality” in the demonstration, but using a prototype to prove a claim of EVM tampering doesn’t serve any purpose.
“What can be done in the House or what cannot be done is the prerogative of the House. But we have seen before that mikes have been broken and chappals (slippers) have been thrown around, thus what this AAP MLA did was not half as disruptive,” said Gopalaswami.
“But as soon as the member (Bhardwaj) said that this machine is ‘like’ an EVM, it is then that his contention had failed. This is just a case of political desperation of a party and an EVM machine can never be tampered with,” he added.
Subhash C Kashyap, a constitutional law expert, said that demonstrating such a machine in the Assembly was not allowed and was yet another instance of “violation of the sanctity of the House.”
“So far as procedure is concerned, each House is its own master. But in the Parliament, under the rules, demonstration, machines or tape recorders are not allowed. This kind of demonstration is not allowed in the House. In the past, sanctity of various Assembly Houses was violated by throwing papers like missiles, breaking microphones, and not allowing the House to function… all these are violations,” said Kashyap.
Bhardwaj on Tuesday brought a prototype of the EVM to the floor of the House for live demonstration. He cited his experience as a Computer Engineer and said that even he could rig the machine. “I was a computer science engineer for 10 years before becoming an MLA. The foundation of India’s democracy is based on machines that can be easily hacked by small engineers such as me,” he said.
Former Chief Election Commissioner, T Krishnamurthy, told News18 that claims of EMVs tampering were completely futile. He said separate reports on EVM tampering submitted by Pavaguda V Indiresan, director, IIT Delhi and in another report by a member of DRDO had clearly stated that EVM machines cannot be tampered with.
“This act of demonstration was not morally correct as such a demonstration should be within the Election Commission premises. How can this be any trustworthy demonstration without the presence of experts and only political leaders? Even the SC has time and again found that no one was able to prove that these machines could be tampered with, and has hence dismissed petitions,” said Krishnamurthy.
But apart from all the EVM tampering claims and the legality of the issue, Supreme Court lawyer Ashish Dixit said the act of demonstration was “not illegal” and now the “EC had the onus to prove that machines cannot be tampered with.”
“If the AAP MLA would have stolen the machine from the EC and then demonstrated, then it would be illegal, but using a prototype is permissible. Moreover, as soon as the elections are over, the machines are under the jurisdiction of the government of India and are no more under the ECI. Today’s demonstration proved that the machine scan be rigged by a cell phone even from a distant location… Now the EC has to prove that the machines cannot be tampered with,” said Dixit.