Kejriwal cannot hide for long behind the EVM hack ruse

There is a nugget of wisdom that is oft-repeated in New Delhi’s political and bureaucratic circle; it being that a news story cannot be killed by issuing rejoinders against it and labelling it erroneous. Doing so most likely has the effect of stoking it further, say its practitioners. Instead, what one must do, per its ardent believers, is to divine attention-grabbing counter-news that stokes and steers the public’s imagination away from the issue at hand. That is exactly what Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal seems to be trying his hand at — albeit ineptly.

At a time when Delhiites, and indeed, Indians, are hoping that Kejriwal can answer for the grave allegations levelled against him, the Delhi CM on Tuesday put on an elaborate display of a facsimile of an EVM machine being hacked in the Delhi assembly. Bear in mind that the EVM hacked in the assembly was not even one sourced from the Election Commission of India. The ECI has rightly claimed that a lookalike EVM can be tampered with and programmed to produce pre-determined results.

In actuality, EVMs from the ECI are secured and experts suggest that it is next to impossible to breach security protocols in these machines. But an expert’s opinion is completely beside the point for AAP, given that the real purpose of the Assembly theatrics is to shirk answerability for allegations that he accepted Rs 2 crore in cash from Satyendra Jain, a Delhi cabinet minister. Mishra’s shocking revelations have earned him an expulsion from the party, another proof — after Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav were shown the door — that AAP is truly a personality cult orbiting around Kejriwal, with no space for any other leader or even principles.

Nevertheless, Mishra has determinedly pushed ahead, filing three complaints with the CBI. For die-hard supporters of AAP and Kejriwal, this is another ingenious plot schemed up by BJP and its cohorts. They should remind themselves that this time, it is not a BJP MP or MLA levelling these charges, but a former AAP minister who held an important portfolio and knew the ins and outs in the party.