A fake narrative on the authenticity and reliability of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) has been created by the Congress-led Indian National Developmental Inclusive (INDI) alliance parties ever since the rise of PM Narendra Modi and BJP in national politics in 2014 and a series of defeats in various state elections. Besides politicians, activists and media handmaidens of the INDI alliance have also raised unsubstantiated doubts about voting machines.

Notably, in 2017, the Election Commission of India (ECI) threw an open challenge to all parties to come and show how EVMs can be hacked. None of the political parties turned up. Of all the parties who have been making noise against EVMs, only the NCP and CPIM turned up, but they also said that they are not there to take the challenge but want to ‘understand the process’.

In August, the ECI submitted to the Supreme Court that none of the political parties took the challenge and tried to demonstrate how the EVMs can be hacked. They just have been making noise about it. After the better-than-expected results secured by opposition parties in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, attacks on EVMs had almost stopped. However, some sections continued to doubt Bharat’s secure EVM, which has now culminated in mass hysteria against EVMs and the ECI

Here are 15 instances when they peddled their cheap political agenda to disrupt and create aspersions on the Bharatiya electoral process.

1. On 16 June, Mid-Day published a false, sensational report claiming that a relative of newly elected Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Waikar could connect to EVMs using his mobile phone. Using this opportunity, INDI alliance politicians Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Chaturvedi, and Aditya Thackeray fueled the fire and furthered the allegations without proof. On 17 June, the Mid-Day newspaper admitted that OTP’s report on voting machines being unlocked was wrong.
2. On 4 June 2024, Congress leader Pratap Singh Khachariyawas said that the ECI should announce a reward for hacking EVMs, adding that if anyone successfully hacks the device in front of the commission, then this counting mechanism should be replaced immediately. Amid the opposition parties raising concerns over the counting process of the votes, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that the entire counting mechanism is robust and the whole process is codified so that no error can be found in the whole procedure.
3. On 3 June 2024, Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel tried to spread dangerous fake news about the ‘mismatch in EVMs’. Chief election officer Chhattisgarh fact-checked this fake news by clarifying that the list of machines changed due to some mechanical/technical faults during the poll, and a mock poll has also been shared with the candidates.
4. Anti-Bharat and pro-Congress propagandist ‘journalist’ Nitasha Kaul shared a fictional story on 27 May 2024 to cast aspersions on the integrity of the voting machines. She conjectured a make-believe story to lend credence to the conspiracy theory mainstreamed by the Congress party about Electronic Voting Machines.
5. On 17 April 2024, Kerala daily newspaper Manorama claimed that four Electronic Voting Machines in Kerala’s Kasaragod had mistakenly registered votes in favour of the BJP during a mock poll. The ludicrous accusations were submitted to the ECI by CPIM leader M V Balakrishnan and the agent of Congress candidate Rajmohan Unnithan, Nasar Cherkalam. Furthermore, they wanted the “erring” voting devices to be replaced. Other outlets, such as The News Minute, then reproduced the allegations. ECI countered these allegations.
6. In a bizarre statement on a day when 102 constituencies across the country were casting votes for the 2024 general elections, Telangana Congress CM Revanth Reddy made a bizarre statement casting doubts on the very voting machines on which he won an election less than 6 months ago, saying that BJP leaders have told him that EVMs favour only Modi and not Congress. Reddy even claimed that the machines were a ‘failed’ experiment, and the public of Bharat no longer believed in the voting machines.
7. On 28 December 2023, the Chairman of the Bharatiya Overseas Congress, Sam Pitroda, refused to provide proof of ‘hacking’ of EVM machines hours after he said that if the machines were not fixed, the BJP might win 400 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. 
8. Two days after BJP won the assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh on 5 December 2023, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh resorted to peddling conspiracy theories surrounding the EVM. In a tweet, he claimed that “Any machine with a chip can be hacked. I have opposed voting by EVM since 2003.”
9. On 3 December 2023, Uttar Pradesh Congress spokesperson Anshu Awasthi raised questions on the voting machines. Anshu Awasthi said, “We have repeatedly said that a deliberation on EVMs needs to happen. All political parties have raised this question before the Election Commission. To ensure that the country’s trust in democracy continues, EVMs need to be removed, and it needs to be deliberated upon.”
10. On 11 May 2023, the ECI rejected the baseless claims made by the Congress party about Bharatiya EVMs being deployed in South Africa and then used for Karnataka polls without re-validation and re-verification. “This puts in serious doubt the entire validation process of the EVM itself,” the Congress party spokesperson Randeep Surjrewala alleged, citing his ‘various sources.’ The Commission rubbished the accusations of the grand old party.
11. On 10 March 2023, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge peddled fake reports of the vote machines being mishandled. He said, “The reports of EVM mishandling are very serious. If EVMs are being found in Garbage trucks, what does that say about the state of our electoral democracy? Does the EC have any answers? Has it become an extended arm of the BJP govt?” Those EVMs were not used in polls and were marked for training purposes.
12. On 19 May 2019, Congress President Rahul Gandhi posted a tweet, blaming the Election Commission for the impending defeat of the Congress party. He accused the Election Commission of “capitulation before Mr Modi & his gang”, which is obvious to all. He gave a long list of alleged concessions given by the EC to Modi, which included electoral bonds, EVMs, alleged manipulation of the election schedule, NaMo TV, “Modi’s Army”, and “drama in Kedarnath”.
13. In April 2019, while talking to the media, Congress leader Sam Pitroda said that he is not satisfied with the EVMs and has been unable to pinpoint any visible faults as he doesn’t have an EVM. He insisted that if given the EVM for a year to study, he could tell if it had any faults.
14. In January 2019, Congress leader Kapil Sibal peddled the allegations that EVMs are being hacked in Bharat, attending an event in London.
15. In March 2017, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor shared a misleading BBC report about EVM tampering originally published in 2010, which appeared to be an attempt to spread the rumour that BJP had rigged the elections.

Even a cursory look at their misleading statements and allegations is sufficient to understand the level of deception that Congress and its INDI alliance partners are ready to go for the sake of political power.

(Featured Image Source: India Today)