If India’s principal Opposition party really believes that it has been losing elections because of EVM and voter-roll tampering—or vote chori/theft as it calls it—and not because of its organizational mess and poor political decision making, then one can only pity such assumptions, for it implies that the party has become a non-serious political player. But if this is political posturing—which it probably is—then it’s a dishonest attempt to make voters believe that Indian democracy has been compromised and that their mandate has ceased to matter.
This is nothing but a cynical effort to erode confidence in India’s institutions. In this the recent publication of an evidencefree media report on the functioning of the Election Commission of India has acted as a tool for the lead Opposition party and its compatriots to attack the poll body.
It is on this rather flimsy piece of “journalistic investigation” that the Opposition I.N.D.I. Alliance—where allies tend to fall out at the first sign of seat-sharing—is planning to rally. Not only will there be protest marches and presentations to the President of India against the Election Commission, there is also buzz that an impeachment motion may be moved against the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar. The plan is to hit the streets to take the vote-chori message to the public.
Not surprisingly, the demand to hold elections by paper ballots too has resurfaced. In this melee, what is being conveniently ignored is that the ECI has asked the Opposition multiple times to prove that EVMs can be tampered with, but not one party has done so. Similarly, while taking the battle to the streets, not one party will mention that the SIR process has faced extensive judicial scrutiny and has been cleared by the Supreme Court itself.
Lest we forget, the ECI has been doing a stellar job in conducting elections and has been effective in streamlining the process. India is a trendsetter when conducting clean and efficient elections. However, disagreements are part of any decision-making process in any organisation, including in the ECI. To turn that into some dark conspiracy where elections are being stolen is an agenda-driven exercise and not a genuine issue. But then the Indian public has the maturity to see through such moves. In fact, it is not easy to rile the Indian voter to rise up in arms against the government, that also on such trumped up charges. Instead the parties concerned, particularly the main Opposition, would be better off increasing their ground presence and focusing on issues that impact the lives of the voters.
