DNA Edit: EC must throw the rulebook at Arvind Kejriwal’s EVM rantings

Every dictator is paranoid, and every wannabe dictator sees ghosts. Arvind Kejriwal, who falls in the latter category, sees cloaked (saffron-coloured mostly) crooked figures tampering with EVMs and transferring every vote that came to him to the BJP column. While hallucinations of a person can be forgiven and even sympathised with, the trouble starts when these are turned into allegations questioning the sanctity of a democratic process.

By doing so, the Aam Aadmi Party is actually pointing an accusing finger at the ‘aam aadmi’ himself – questioning not just the individual’s democratic right to vote but also the choice he made. That makes Kejriwal a non-believer in democracy – a direct translation for ‘dictator’.

The other ‘accused’ in this bizarre blame-game is the Election Commission (EC). An EVM is the EC’s property and prerogative, just as democracy is people’s property and prerogative. While the latter has done her/his bit on Wednesday, it is now imperative that the Commission throws the rulebook at Kejriwal. A ‘Come-Hack-Our-EVM’ challenge, thrown open by the EC for the month of May, sounds good as a game show, but is too weak-kneed coming from an autonomous constitutional authority.

Behind closed doors, the AAP is in disarray. Faith in its ‘supreme leader’ is shaken, there is no ideology to hold on to, the cause has long been lost and the lease term for their backyard Delhi is ending. Kejriwal, well aware of this churn within the flock, came out with a single narrative to explain all his present and (possible) future electoral failures -- questioning EVMs.

However, you can’t hide a thing when facing a TV camera. Richard Nixon’s sweat in the first televised US presidential debate cost him the presidency (people then said he could’ve defeated John F Kennedy only if it was on radio). Every AAP spokesperson coming on camera and blaming EVMs now resembles Nixon. Their faces betray one singular emotion – a sense of incredulity about what they have been told to parrot.

Going by past precedents, the next course of action for Kejriwal will be dharnas, agitations, roadblocks and possibly EVM-effigy burning. He has made the machine his target today. Tomorrow, he will question the finger that presses the button.

(The writer is the Editor-in-Chief of DNA)