Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Can EVMs be tampered?' that was published in Newsband

Can EVMs be tampered?

There were allegations about EVMs or Electronic Voting Machines having been tampered during Assembly Elections. The Supreme Court sought a response from the Election Commission (EC) on a plea. CBI is yet to be told to probe into allegations of tampering of electronic voting machines (EVMs) during polls, including the recent five Assembly elections and Maharashtra civic polls.

The plea sought examination of the quality, software/malware and hacking effect in the EVMs from a reliable electronic lab/scientist and software expert and to file their report before the court for further action/prosecution.

Demand was made for foreign experts to conduct the tests. A demand was also made to register an FIR to investigate the alleged tampering of EVMs for vested interest by the political party.

When bank accounts are hacked and funds drawn, how the EVM's could be certified temper proof? There are so many electronic gadgets and components sold in the Indian markets which are found to have been duplicated. So how can EVM be termed fool proof at all?

Any malpractice is possible if our administration itself is corrupt. There are some people who have read the book on how EVM can be tampered with written by none other than BJP's own Subramanyan Swamy. But the government is trying to say that EVMs are impenetrable.

When there was no EVM, there were allegations about booth capturing. Now when there are EVMs, we hear allegations about these voting machines having been tampered. Is there really anybody who is doing this heinous crime against democracy of India? Is it possible to detect whether EVMs were tampered with? If it is possible then a thorough investigation should be conducted and this task should be assigned to honest investigators.

Whatever may be the outcome of the investigation, it is clear that digital world is here to stay in all spheres of life as it can be made corruption free to a great extent if not totally. But, at the same time, don’t forget that there was a case of a Belgian election result having been tampered by Neurons from outerspace in 2003. We need to have the complete schematic of the EVM, only after which it can be known whether it is tamper proof.