Every Vote for Modi’ seems to have become the new full form of the acronym EVM, which had turned into an ‘Electronic Victory Machine’ for the BJP during the recent Assembly elections, particularly in Uttar Pradesh. The saffron party is claiming that ‘Even Voters were Muslims’ (pun intended). On the other hand, Opposition and secular forces are alleging that ‘Every Vote was Manipulated’.
They are also pointing out this is the ‘Establishment’s Veiled Message’ that Modi-led Centre is capable of doing anything and everything to grab or stay in power. ‘Endlessly Vilifying Muslims’ is just one of them. This is more than evident from its ‘Ease in Voicing Malice’ against the community during and before the elections.
Going against the ‘Electoral Verdict in Manipur’, where BJP ranked second in terms of vote garnering behind Congress, is yet another instance, highlighting the party’s keenness to ‘Ensure all Visible Methods’ to get the power. Nongthombam Biren Singh has been chosen to head the state as BJP is working to ‘Engineer Valid Majority’ to form its first government in Manipur. Again in Goa, where the saffron party scored less than the Congress, it has been ‘Exploring Various Methods’ to prove its majority on the floor of the House as Manohar Parrikar has already sworn in as chief Minister of the state.
Opposition has alleged that ‘Excess Volume of Money’ is being used for horse-trading. The power game is not new. Congress too had ‘Executed Violence and Money’ to win polls and form governments in the past. The only difference is that the BJP is doing it a bit loudly, openly and boldly.
Coming back to EVMs, they have been rejected by quite a few countries, particularly European nations. Netherlands banned them for lack of transparency. Ireland too, after three years of research worth 51 million pounds, decided to junk EVMs. While Germany has declared these machines unconstitutional and banned it, Italy too stopped e-voting. In the US, California and many other states banned EVMs if they did not have a paper trail. Venezuela, Macedonia and Ukraine stopped using EVMs after discovering massive rigging. England and France have never used EVMs. ‘Each Vote Matters’. Thus, one can’t risk losing any of it to these fraud and ‘Error-prone Voting Machines’.
‘Ever-Visionary Mayawati’ has called for re-election using ballot papers, which now seems to be more ‘Error-free Voting Method’. Even Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, at one point of time, had said that the EVMs could be easily tampered with and their results manipulated. ‘Evaluating Views on the Matter’ and making decision accordingly is the right thing to do.
‘Engaging Various sections of the Masses’ on the issue and improving the present EVM system or going back to the paper ballots is the only way forward to protect the democratic nature of the election process. The fate of EVMs, which can make or break an election, must be decided jointly. After all, ‘Each Voice Matters’.
