Watch Out! Modi and the BJP might surreptitiously be banking on EVM’s to win the elections!

Faulty EVM’s Reported across the Country in the First Round of Voting

The reports of faulty EVM’s kept on pouring from across the country in the first round of voting on April 11. In Saharanpur itself, after the complaint of 56 defective EVM’s surfaced, the same were replaced. According to the Election Commission, too, there have been reports of more than 350 faulty EVM’s. The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu, went on record saying 30 percent of EVM’s are not functioning properly. What is amusing is that just a few days ago, on the Supreme Court’s demand that VVPAT’s be used for all EVM’s, the Election Commission threw a tantrum and countered rather peevishly that does the Apex Court not trust the EVM’s! However, the first round of voting has itself made it clear that the EVM’s cannot be relied upon. What is more amusing is that the same fault is cropping up in all the EVM’s: whichever button one presses, the vote goes to the BJP. A voter went so far as to make a video and show that despite pressing the button against any other party, the vote went to the BJP. Following this, is there any scope for doubts or misgivings left that the BJP and the Modi-Shah duo are manipulating the elections by dismantling the entire electoral process? Must the Supreme Court not take suo moto cognizance and act on this issue? Should the Election Commission not make arrangements for VVPAT verification of all EVM’s after the experience of the first round? However, no one wants to meet the same fate as Judge Loya? During the tenure of the Modi Government, the plight of institutions such as the Supreme Court and Election Commission has become pitiable. It is pointless to even hope that they will take any measures on this. At the same time, all the other bourgeois parties do not even possess the bare minimum strength to demand in unison that the system of paper ballot be restored and that of EVM’s be done away with. The Revolutionary Workers’ Party of India (RWPI) spokesperson, Shivani Kaul, said that the RWPI, as part of its agenda of the reforms in the electoral system, believes that the system of EVM’s, which has been renounced by many advanced capitalist countries first having adopted it, must be discarded and the system of the ballot paper be reinstated. If the need be, the Revolutionary Workers’ Party of India (RWPI) would even file a review petition on this matter in the Supreme Court, however, as the things stand and given the present condition of the judiciary, not much can be expected of it. The Fascist Modi Government has displayed the true characteristics of the Fascism of the twenty-first century, in which the shell, the mask of the bourgeois democracy remains but the soul of all bourgeois democratic institutions and processes is extricated and these are rendered hollow. Like Hitler’s Nazi Party, the Fascism of the twenty-first century would not formally dismantle the bourgeois democracy, its elections and other institutions. However, it will render them so ineffective that having or not having these institutions would not amount to much. The Modi-Shah duo is doing precisely the same and this cannot be countered merely by taking recourse to the judiciary but by taking to streets as well. The people must be made aware of the manipulations going on in the electoral process and they must be mobilized and organized on the same. Ms. Shivani added that the Revolutionary Workers’ Party of India (RWPI) has decided that if the Supreme Court and the Election Commission do not take appropriate concrete measures on the issue pertaining to the EVM defects so as to ensure free and fair elections, then the Party would also take to streets against this.