Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Nov 26: Even as the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday demanded the return to ballot paper voting and called for a concerted campaign on the scale of Bharat Jodo Yatra to create awareness among the people about it, the Supreme Court rejected a petition seeking to revert to traditional ballot paper voting process in the elections in the country.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and PB Varale while dismissing the petition remarked, “What happens is, when you win the election Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are not tampered. When you lose the election, EVMs are tampered (with).” The oral remark was made by Justice Vikram Nath before dismissing the petition filed by evangelist K.A. Paul, who sought a judicial order to return to paper ballots
Justice Nath, during the hearing, asked Mr Paul whether he wanted to turn the court into a political arena. Mr Paul said he was not playing any politics in court. He said his visits abroad to various countries revealed that the paper ballot system was being followed in democracies across the world. He drew attention to the fact that the court was hearing his petition on Constitution Day.
The evangelist, appearing in person, said the Election Commission of India must be directed to disqualify candidates found distributing largesse, money, liquor during elections for at least five years. The top court bench sarcastically even asked the petitioner KL Paul, who is the president of an organisation which has rescued over three lakh orphans and 40 lakh widows, as to how he gets such brilliant ideas.
“You have interesting PILs. How do you get these brilliant ideas? Why are you getting into this political arena? Your area of work is very different,” the bench retorted. The petitioner claimed that tech giant Elon Musk has also said the EVMs could be tampered and hacked. He further argued that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and former CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy have also levelled similar allegations in the past.
To this argument, the bench said, “When Chandrababu Naidu lost, he said EVMs can be tampered with. Now this time, Jagan Mohan Reddy lost, he said EVMs can be tampered with.” When the petitioner said that most of the countries across the globe had adopted ballot paper voting process and urged that India should follow suit, the bench asked, “Why you don’t want to be different from the rest of the world?”
In April 2024, the Supreme Court had, in a judgment, upheld the EVM system of polling while refusing to revive paper ballots. “The weakness of the ballot paper system is well known and documented. Keeping in view the vast size of the Indian electorate of nearly 97 crore, the number of candidates who contest the elections, the number of polling booths where voting is held, and the problems faced with ballot papers, we would be undoing the electoral reforms by directing reintroduction of the ballot papers. EVMs offer significant advantages,” the Supreme Court had reasoned in its verdict.
The court had observed that “blind distrust” of an institution or a system bred unwarranted scepticism and impeded progress. In September 2023, the Election Commission of India had assured the apex court that the EVMs could neither be hacked nor tampered. In a 450-page affidavit, the top poll body had stated that EVMs were “totally stand-alone machines having one-time programmable chips” which could not be altered.
Earlier in the day, speaking at the ‘Samvidhan Rakshak Abhiyaan’ function at Talkatora stadium in New Delhi, Mr Kharge said the Prime Minister Narendra Modi feared a caste census. He said Mr Modi was afraid that if he allowed a caste census then all sections of society would demand their share.
Mr Kharge also accused the BJP of not having any “constitutional integrity or federal character” and alleged that the party was undoing everything that BR Ambedkar and other members of the Constituent Assembly did through the Constitution.
Referring to the Maharashtra Assembly elections outcome, Mr Kharge alleged that billionaire businessman Gautam Adani had a lot to do with the election as his wealth was at stake. “We should all unite and move forward together and push them aside. I do not wish to speak about elections, but I would surely say the votes of all the poor and oppressed communities are going to waste. They should all demand voting by ballot paper,” he said.
“Let them keep EVMs with them. We don’t want EVMs, we want voting on ballot paper. Then they will know what their position is and where they stand. “From our party, we should start this campaign to make everyone aware that they should want ballot paper back. We will speak to other political parties also,” Kharge said, urging Rahul Gandhi to launch a movement. “We should start a campaign like Bharat Jodo Yatra to bring back the ballot paper,” he stressed.
On the Prime Minister, he said, “PM Modi fears caste census as everyone will then demand their share and Mr Modi will have to run away to Ahmedabad.” If the Prime Minister really wants unity in the country, then he and the BJP should stop spreading hatred, he said. “They are saying ‘batenge to katenge’, but who is dividing the country? It is them who are trying to divide the country by spreading hatred, misguiding people and dividing people in the name of religion.
“They talk of the Constitution, but when the Constitution was adopted, the RSS had said it is based on the western culture and it should be based on ‘Manusmriti’,” the Congress leader said. Mr Kharge, again referring to RSS, said those who have insulted the Constitution are indulging in “fake love” for it.
He also exhorted the Dalits not to run after the BJP. “They are not ‘rakshak (protector), but ‘bhakshak’ (destroyers) of the Constitution. They want to destroy the Constitution. We should all unite and move forward together and push them behind,” he said.
