Punjab CM unimpressed as Rahul leads Opposition team to Prez to complain on 'faulty' EVMs; Former law minister Moily too unimpressed
Two days after petitioning the Election Commission, Opposition parties on Wednesday knocked the doors of President Pranab Mukherjee to appraise him of the alleged tampering of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and requested his intervention to "save democracy". Led by Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, the team included Congress's leaders in both Houses, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mallikarjun Kharge, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, and leaders of Trinamool Congress, CPI, Samajwadi Party, BSP, JD-U, DMK and NCP.
But their demand was punctured by none other than Congress leader and Chief Minister of Punjab Amarinder Singh, who said: "If EVMs were fixed then I wouldn't be sitting here. The Akalis would be." The Punjab was the only state won by Congress in the recent round of assembly elections.
Former Law Minister Veerappa Moily also asked his leaders to desist from censoring their own system. He, however, hastily added that there was a need for updating technology and an investigation by a high-powered committee into the allegations. "There was no question of going manually, it's not a progressive step. I don't think we should go back," he said. He reminded that EVMs were launched when Congress was in power.
Both these statements fly in the face of comments by top party leaders like Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi and Ghulam Nabi Azad, who had demanded that the Election Commission ditch EVMs and revert to old ballot papers.
The leaders told President in a memorandum that there were misgivings that the Bharatiya Janata Party had manipulated the EVMs to fraudulently win the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections and it would be an end of the democracy if such a fraud is perpetrated in the future elections. The leaders said they have already urged the Election Commission to better revert back to physical ballot paper voting in view of the public losing faith in the EVMs due to the recent allegations.
"We drew his attention to the recent critical developments which have seriously undermined governance and institutional integrity," Azad told reporters after the delegation's meeting with the President. The delegation also apprised the President on the recent Alwar lynching by the cow vigilantes.
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