Why the new BJP
Government is called EVM Sarkar
Syed Ali Mujtaba
The 2019 parliamentary election mandate is shrouded in
suspense, mystery, uneasiness and unhappiness among large section of the people
in the country. The clean sweep by the BJP is not accepted by many people and
there is a clamor all around, that the BJP has won the polls through
Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) manipulation calling the new government as EVM Sarkar.
The needle of suspicion is on the Election Commission which
is a handpicked body of the BJP that presided over the General Election and in
the end suspected to bring the ruling dispensation back to power with a
resounding majority. The common electorates are not satisfied with the way the
seven phase election was conducted in India and more so with the outcome of the
result after almost two months of waiting.
There are enough evidences to prove that EVMs were
manipulated during the 2019 parliamentary election. There are reports just
before the 7th phase of the polls that trucks filled with EVMS were heading
towards the strong room that's based on the testimony of the laborers who have
loaded them in trucks and party workers who saw the movement of these trucks.
There are also reports that some 20 lakhs EVMS are missing
from the custody of the Election commission from a period of almost one year.
There are videos evidence of EVMs were found in the hotel rooms, brickyards and
old factories etc and the accountability of all such missing EVMs is on
Election Commission. However, the
Election Commission has never come out with an answer that how many EVMS are
missing and how many have they recovered.
In such case of stoke silence by the EC on such serious issue the people
of India are unhappy about its role and duties.
If we go through the website of the Election Commission it’s
found that there is a big mismatch between the “votes polled” and “votes
counted.” This is a huge discrepancy is witnessed in over 370 constituencies. For
instance in all the 48 Parliamentary constituencies in Maharashtra and 203
assembly constituencies of Madhya Pradesh there is mismatch in the votes polled
and the votes counted.
The Election commission refuses to explain why such
discrepancy has happened at all and why the people should accept the verdict as
a fait accompli even in the wake of such large mismatch in the mandate.
Is it a coincidence or malfunction of the EVMs that seven
contestants in 2019 General Election have won their seats with the same margin
of votes? Bhola Singh, Menaka Gandhi, Upender Narshigh, Harish Dividi, Satpal
Singh, Sangh Mitra Murya, Kunwar Bhatender Singh have won by identical margins
of 211820/ 140295. Is it duty of the
Election Commission to remove the concern of the people why such results have
been thrown by the foolproof EVMs and the VVPT?
Every countryman has read the reports of the malfunction of
the EVMs from several places in the country. So far there is no clarification
from the Election Commission on this matter. The general public is eager to
know as to how many places such malfunctioning of EVMs had happened and what
did the EC do to rectify such problem to ensure smooth polling.
There is a huge suspicion that the EVMs were manipulated
during the General Elections. It can be ascertained from the fact that the
result of the Karnataka Municipal Election that was held just six days after
the Lok Sabha election under ballot papers was quite different from
Parliamentary results. The local body result says that Congress got 1880 seats,
JDS 828 seats and BJP 714 seas. What does this suggests that in one week people
changed their preferences when the BJP bagged 25 seats out of 28.
Similarly, if we recall the UP election, where the BJP had
swept the polls in 2017, but after six months when the local body elections
wer held, the results were not the same. The results from UP indicate that BJP
won only in the urban areas where EVMs were used but in the rural areas where
ballot papers were used, it had a poor showing. What does all this indicate
that there has been massive manipulation of the EVMs to ensure the BJP victory
in 2019?
There are other reasons of suspicion why the 2019 general
election mandate is doubtful. In the aftermath of the results, Instead of
jubilation all around, many people were shocked and stunned with the results
There was discussion among a large number of people who did not vote for the
BJP as why their preferences have been defaced. The results belied the
expectation as they did not vote for the BJP but the results say their
contrary. This suggests that the EVM were manipulated in such a way that
whichever button the voter clicked, the votes went to the BJP.
If the BJP had got resounding support from the general
masses, the victory should certainly have been celebrated on the street with
much jubilation. But in this case no such sentiments were seen anywhere in the
country and people were in shock and dismay as to how the BJP got such
resounding mandate.
Those who witnessed the 1977 General election may remember
the kind of popular upsurge on the streets across the country, when Congress
was voted out of power. There was jubilation all around when Janata Party came
to power with resounding mandate after the dark days of National Emergency
imposed in 1975.
However no such scene was witnessed after the 2019 general
elections results were declared? This suggests that there was large scale of
mismatch between the popular will and results announced to declare the winners
of the general election of 2019.
As an Indian if we are unhappy with the 2019 election results
we must look towards the Courts to get remedy to somehow tally the VVPAT with
the votes counted. If there is proof of discrepancy found, there should
reelection in such constituencies without the EVM.
The other suggestion is to test the popular mandate by having
re poll in some of the constituencies of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh that went
had elections in the first phase. If the BJP maintain the old voting share, we
may approve their mandate and accept it as a popular verdict. However, if the
BJP loses even one percent of its vote share then there should be in reelection
in all the 315 seats where the BJP have won.
As an Indian if we have to safeguard our democracy we have to
fight for both ballot paper and EVM polling. There should be a single day
election in the entire country. There should not be any transportation of the
EVMS or ballot boxes to any other places from the polling booths. After the
polling is over, the polling booth should be converted into strong room where
few party workers should be allowed to stand in guard. The next day the counting of the votes should
be held at the same place to prevent any strong room malpractices.
The above reforms should be implemented as soon as possible
to remove any doubts from the people’s mind that are living and breathing in
one of the largest democracy of the world. This farce of seven phase polls
spread over two months in the summer of 2019 should never happen again. The
results declared have given enough room for suspicion that the popular will has
never been reflected.
It is an earnest appeal to all the political parties that
they should come forward to streamline the electoral process in the country.
There should not be any more fooling with the sentiments of the people who have
overwhelmingly participated in the national festival of parliamentary democracy
in the country. The results of 2019 general election have conveyed that the
freedom of expression of Indian Parliamentary democracy has been hijacked by
this EVM Sarkar.
--
Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be
contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com
