EVMs Can Be Hacked, Go Back To Ballot Paper In LS Polls, Says Congress. BJP Calls It 'Excuse To Save Family’

Congress has called for the use of ballot papers for the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha polls saying that EVMs can be hacked. BJP responded calling it an excuse for the Congress to save "the family".

Ahead of assembly elections in five states, BJP and Congress are once again engaged in a war of words over the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Demanding to go back to ballot paper in next year's general elections, the Congress said that EVM can be 'manipulated, hacked and interdicted'. The party said that EVM is a machine and 'like any machine, it can be rigged'. Reacting to the remarks, BJP said that when Congress wins the polls, "EVM and EC are fine", and alleged that the grand old party is saying so to save "the family" in the upcoming elections.

"Democracy is too precious to be left to technology. The question is not that EVMs are manipulated. The question is that EVMs can be manipulated. That is reason enough to go back to paper ballots. For the simple reason, the electronic voting machine is at the end of the day, a machine. And like any machine, it can be rigged, it can be hacked, it can be interdicted, and it can be played around with," Congress MP Manish Tewari said.

He added that the 2024 Lok Sabha elections should be held on paper ballots. “I do not understand the paternalistic obsession of the Election Commission of India with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Even countries which had adopted Electronic Voting Machines have gone back to paper ballots for the simple reason that they can be interfered with. So, under those circumstances, the 2024 elections must be held on paper ballots".

When They Win An Election, EVM And Election Commission Are Fine: BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party responded to Tewari’s remarks and said that when Congress wins an election, the EVM and the Election Commission are fine.

"EVM is an excuse as they (Congress) want to save the family in the forthcoming election. Unfortunately, the Congress Party thinks that people will not ask them questions about their conditional commitment to constitutional institutions. When they win an election in Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh, the EVM and the Election Commission are fine," he said.

"But when they are seeing an imminent defeat in the upcoming state elections or in the national elections then they start making the ground for an alibi to protect the first family from the loss. This just shows that the Congress Party has no faith in the constitution and constitutional institutions," Poonawalla added.