'Rahul Gandhi's Jamaat Of Doubters...': Shehzaad Poonawalla On Opposition's Claim Of 'EVM Black Box'

The BJP has accused Rahul Gandhi of using EVM hacking claims to deflect attention from the rising fuel prices in Karnataka. He has dismissed the concerns as "lies", citing EC clarifications.

BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla has said that Rahul Gandhi was using the 'EVM black box' claim to hide his black deeds. He said the Congress leader was peddling lies to shift the focus from the rising petrol and diesel prices in Karnataka.

"Rahul Gandhi who speaks of the black box wants to hide his black deeds and therefore he wants to use a half-baked story to peddle his lies and fakery. To hide the black deeds of Karnataka where the price of diesel and petrol has been increased, he is using a fake story and peddling half-truths and full lies," Poonawalla told news agency ANI.

Calling Rahul Gandhi a "congenital liar", Poonawalla said: "Rahul Gandhi has pushed forward a story, which says OTP is required for unlocking EVMs. Many other people from his ecosystem have also said this. The EC came out and clarified that no OTP is required for "unlocking"... EVMs are stand-alone machines. They are like calculators. There's no network connectivity, so there's no question of it being hacked..." 

"It [the case of EVM hacking] has gone to the Supreme Court over 40 times where his [Rahul Gandhi's] own jamaat of EVM doubters have been told by the top court that the machines are perfectly fine," Poonawalla said.

What Is The EVM Controversy?

The controversy started with an X Post by tech tycoon Elon Musk. In his post, Musk talked about EVMs facing the risk of being hacked and called to end the use of EVMs. After his post went viral, Congress's Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav, and leaders of other Opposition parties also called for revisiting the issue of EVMs.

Referring to Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) faction leader Ravindra Waikar winning the Mumbai North-West Lok Sabha seat by a slim margin of just 48 votes, Rahul Gandhi posted on X: "EVMs in India are a "black box," and nobody is allowed to scrutinize them. Serious concerns are being raised about transparency in our electoral process. Democracy ends up becoming a sham and prone to fraud when institutions lack accountability." Rahul Gandhi attached a newspaper report on the claim.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said, "Technology is meant to solve problems, if it becomes the cause of problems then its use should be stopped. Today, when fears of EVM tampering are being expressed in many elections of the world and the world's renowned technology experts are openly writing about the danger of EVM tampering, then what is the reason behind the insistence on using EVM, BJP should clarify this. We reiterate our demand that all future elections be conducted using ballot papers.”

After Rahul Gandhi's claim, returning officer of Mumbai North West Lok Sabha constituency Vandana Suryavanshi said the claim of an OTP being used to unlock EVMs was false. She said: "There is no OTP (One Time Password) on mobile for unlocking EVM as it is non-programmable and it has no wireless communication capabilities. It is a complete lie being spread by a newspaper, which is being used by some leaders to create false narrative."

She further clarified that "EVMs are standalone devices without any wired or wireless connectivity with units outside the EVM system". She said EVMs are operated in the presence of candidates or their agents and there are safeguards against any kind of manipulation.