After Bangladesh, India Should Stop Using EVMs in Elections

If the opposition parties really want to stop the use of EVMs like Bangladesh has done, they should hold street protests against the ECI in front of the ECI office and the state election commission offices.

While there have been numerous complaints about the vulnerability of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in Bangladesh, the country has decided to discard EVMs for want of funds to buy and maintain these machines.

Opposition political parties holding a press conference on April 14, 2019 to raise the issue of election frauds on EVMs in India (file photo)

According to reports, the Bangladesh Election Commission (EC) has decided not to use EVMs in the next parliamentary election which is expected to take place in January 2024.

The Bangladesh EC has announced that paper ballots and transparent ballot boxes will be used in all 300 parliamentary constituencies during the upcoming election. But the Election Commission of India (ECI) has been ignoring the constant complaints of the opposition parties and research findings about the vulnerability of EVMs to persist with these insecure machines.

Rather, in December 2022, the ECI announced plans to expand the use of EVMs in Indian elections by introducing a new Multi-Constituency Remote Electronic Voting Machine (RVM).

The opposition parties complain that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of prime minister (PM) Narendra Modi colludes with the ECI to manipulate EVMs and win elections deceptively.

But the ECI – which is completely controlled by the Modi government – ignores the opposition complaints and holds elections on EVMs and mostly BJP wins. And the defeated opposition parties willy-nilly accept the election results and wait for the next elections.

As the doubts about the fraudulent use of EVMs have been increasing, ChatGPT (or Generative Pre-trained Transformer) - which is an artificial intelligence or AI-based online tool - confirms that there are several ways in which EVMs can be hacked and manipulated.

[ You can also click here to watch a related video on RMN YouTube Channel. ]

Opposition Complaints

The opposition party Congress complained about the EVM frauds even in the recent elections. When Congress was defeated by the BJP in the Gujarat election in December 2022, a Congress leader Digvijay Singh blamed the fraudulent use of EVMs. But he did not reveal any plan to stop the EVM manipulation.

Simultaneously, a Congress spokesman Pawan Khera held a comprehensive briefing to explain how EVMs were manipulated by the BJP of PM Modi to win the

Gujarat election. But he too did not discuss any specific strategy to combat the alleged EVM fraud by BJP in elections.

Congress complains that EVMs are not safe even when used with the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) option. It is also observed that when EVMs malfunction, they vote only in favor of Modi’s BJP which runs with Lotus election symbol.

Obviously, BJP will always oppose paper ballots and any investigation into the misuse of EVMs. And it goes without saying that the Election Commission – which is a toothless outfit – will always obey Modi.

However, top tech experts believe that it is very easy to tamper with EVMs in India and change the election results fraudulently in favor of certain candidates.

FRAUDULENT USE OF EVMs

In their study on EVMs in India, security researchers from India, the United States, and the Netherlands argue that “contrary to claims by Indian election authorities, these paperless electronic voting systems suffer from significant vulnerabilities.”

The researchers also have found that even brief access to the machines could allow dishonest election insiders or other criminals to alter election results. They have developed a video to demonstrate their claims.

Tech experts observe that besides other manipulations, the chip used in the EVMs is not of the OTP (One Time Programmable) category. That means, it can be programmed in each EVM to change the vote count in favor of a particular candidate.

Since opposition parties have been raising the EVM vulnerability issues repeatedly, now it is believed that the BJP manipulates EVMs in some crucial state elections and Lok Sabha elections in which Modi himself contests.

Since most politicians in opposition parties are illiterate, they cannot fully understand the manipulation that can be done with the EVMs. Therefore, after some weak verbal protests, they accept EVM election results in which mostly BJP wins.

Now, with the introduction of new EVMs that the ECI has proposed, it will become extremely difficult for opposition parties to win elections and prove the vulnerability of the new machines.

If the opposition parties really want to stop the use of EVMs like Bangladesh has done, they should hold street protests against the ECI in front of the ECI office and the state election commission offices.

As the ECI will again ignore the demands to discard EVMs and use paper ballots in elections, the opposition parties should boycott the future elections - including the Lok Sabha election 2024 - instead of complaining about EVMs after every election defeat.

Despite Russian Opposition, Finland Joins NATO as 31st Ally

The Finnish national anthem and the NATO hymn were played, as Finland’s flag was raised outside NATO Headquarters for the first time.

Finland became NATO’s newest member on 4 April 2023, upon depositing its instrument of accession to the North Atlantic Treaty with the United States at NATO Headquarters in Brussels.

NATO Allies signed Finland’s Accession Protocol on 5 July 2022, after which all 30 national parliaments voted to ratify the country’s membership.

“We welcome Finland to the Alliance!,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, as Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto deposited Finland’s instrument of accession with the government of the United States, represented by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“Sweden is also a strong and capable partner that is ready to join NATO. We encourage Türkiye and Hungary to ratify the accession protocols for Sweden without delay so we can welcome Sweden into the Alliance as soon as possible,” Blinken said.

The NATO Secretary General welcomed Finnish President Sauli Niinistö to NATO Headquarters for a flag-raising ceremony to mark the country’s accession to the Alliance.

Speaking ahead of the ceremony, the Secretary General thanked President Niinistö for his outstanding leadership and for leading Finland into the most successful Alliance in history. “I am deeply proud to welcome Finland as a full-fledged member of our Alliance and I look forward to also welcoming Sweden as soon as possible,” he said. “Joining NATO is good for Finland, it is good for Nordic security and it is good for NATO as a whole,” he added.

The Secretary General also noted that Finland’s accession shows the world that President Putin failed to “slam NATO’s door shut.” “Instead of less NATO, he has achieved the opposite; more NATO and our door remains firmly open,” he said.

The Finnish national anthem and the NATO hymn were played, as Finland’s flag was raised outside NATO Headquarters for the first time, in the presence of President Niinistö, Foreign Minister Haavisto, Defence Minister Kaikkonen, the foreign ministers of all NATO Allies and invitee Sweden.

Simultaneous flag-raising ceremonies took place at Allied Command Operations (SHAPE) in Mons (Belgium) and Allied Command Transformation in Norfolk, Virginia (United States).

After Calling PM Modi Illiterate, Kejriwal’s Party Launches ‘Show Your Degree’ Campaign

It is expected that the AAP will also ask its leader Bhagwant Mann who is the CM of Punjab to show his degree because it is assumed that Punjab is facing extreme unrest because Bhagwant Mann is not properly educated.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of Delhi chief minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal has launched a strange campaign in which the AAP leaders will publicly show the degrees of their educational qualifications.

Launched on April 9 under the banner ‘Show Your Degree’, the AAP campaign asks the leaders of other political parties also to show their degrees. Since Kejriwal and Delhi Lt. Governor (LG) Vinai Saxena are always at daggers drawn with each other, the campaign also urges the LG to show his degree openly to the public.

It is expected that the AAP will also ask its leader Bhagwant Mann who is the CM of Punjab to show his degree because it is assumed that Punjab is facing extreme unrest because Bhagwant Mann is not properly educated.

The main idea behind the AAP initiative is to particularly highlight the fact that the prime minister (PM) of India Narendra Modi is an uneducated man. Recently, the Gujarat High Court fined Kejriwal as he asked for Modi's degree through a Right to Information (RTI) application.

As expected, the court said that this information is not required to be furnished and surprisingly fined Kejriwal Rs. 25,000 for demanding details of Modi’s qualification.

In a Hindi tweet posted on March 31, Kejriwal asked if the people of the country do not have the right to know how much their PM is educated. He lamented that those who are asking for Modi’s degree are being fined. The Indian courts cannot dare to take any decision that may displease Modi.

In 2016, the Central Information Commission (CIC), responding to the RTI request, had directed the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the Gujarat University, and Delhi University to provide information on Modi’s graduation and post-graduation degrees. The Gujarat University challenged the CIC order in the High Court and Kejriwal could not get the information.

For the past few days, Kejriwal has been repeatedly saying that Modi is the most corrupt and uneducated PM that India has seen in 75 years of its independence. In a speech delivered in Delhi Assembly on March 28, Kejriwal presented detailed data on Modi’s corruption and exposed his alleged criminal nexus with oligarch Gautam Adani.

Recently, Kejriwal said that today there is a need to save the country from an uneducated PM Modi who is behaving as a dictator. In a video interaction on March 24, Kejriwal said that Modi is trying to establish a one-nation-one-party rule by destroying the opposition political parties and their leaders.

These days, Kejriwal’s AAP is also running a nationwide campaign under the banner “Modi Hatao Desh Bachao” or remove PM Modi to save the country. The AAP campaign of “Modi Hatao Desh Bachao” includes posters in 11 languages which are being distributed in different states of India.

In the next phase, the party plans to engage with students in various universities with the message that the country’s PM should be an educated man unlike Modi.

As Kejriwal says, Modi is perhaps the most naïve and illiterate PM that India has ever seen. He cannot utter even a single word about any modern subject. His level of knowledge is not more than that of a bumpkin.

Since Modi is illiterate, 1.4 billion Indians are suffering in his regime under unprecedented poverty, corruption, inflation, unemployment, and religious animosity. He has been hoodwinking the voters - most of whom are illiterate like him - with false slogans and vulgar rhetoric delivered through his monologues.

It is also believed that Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win most elections by selectively manipulating electronic voting machines (EVMs) in collusion with the election authorities.

There is a huge controversy in India about the educational qualifications of Modi and almost all people in India and abroad know that Modi is not an educated man and cannot talk on any intellectual subject.

Picture this: Even when Modi reads the speeches written for him by others, it is difficult to make heads or tails of his meaningless utterances as he is uneducated and speaks in broken English.

In fact, Modi cannot speak even a single sentence in any language properly and needs constant help from a teleprompter. [ You can click here to watch a related video in which Modi fumbles. ]

The patriotic Indians – excluding a handful of Modi’s deaf and blind followers – feel ashamed of having an uneducated prime minister. In order to hide his illiteracy, Modi often appears in colorful costumes at some inauguration events or irrelevant office meetings which even a donkey or a monkey can also handle.

Since Modi is illiterate, he has not held even a single press conference in India during the nine years of his rule in the country and refuses to talk to journalists when he goes abroad. Thus, he has tarnished India’s image in all parts of the world.

Now, in order to progress in the knowledge-driven world, India needs a properly educated prime minister who could speak fluently on different topics of intellectual relevance.

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