The Opposition on Wednesday raised a din in the Rajya Sabha forcing a brief adjournment over the issue of alleged tampering of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and called the Government a “cheat.” The treasury retorted that the Opposition lacked grace in accepting defeat in recently held Assembly polls and said the issue should be raised with the Election Commission instead of bringing it to the House.
leader of Opposition and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad also demanded that since doubts were now raised about the EVMs they should not be used in the forthcoming polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. He also charged that the ruling combine tampered with the EVMs in the UP polls.
Rejecting the Opposition claims about EVMs, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs said no questions were raised during the 2004 and 2009 general elections besides Delhi and Punjab Assembly polls. Similarly, when SP and BSP came to power in UP, the EVMs never came under the scanner, he said adding the Opposition had lost its “mental balance” instead of gracefully accepting defeat.
He also said the House on March 22 discussed the functioning of EVMs in a four-hour long debate and the Opposition could not come up concrete facts against the voting machines.
Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien urged the Opposition to take up the issue with the Election Commission and when members of SP, BSP and Congress stormed into the well, he remarked “what can the chair do” on this issue. Kurien then adjourned the house for about seven minutes during the Zero Hour.
Earlier, raising the issue during Zero Hour, Digvijaya Singh (Congress) said the testing of EVMs for a by-election in Madhya Pradesh had a few days back shown manipulations by which votes could be credited to BJP irrespective of the candidate for whom these have been cast. He demanded that ballot papers be used for the upcoming by-elections and elections henceforth.
Countering him, Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javedkar said the Election Commission clarified that the EVMs cannot be manipulated and quipped if the Opposition had any problem they should go to it and not waste Parliament's time.
Ramgopal Yadav (SP) claimed deliberate programming of chips was done in the EVMs and termed it a serious matter.
Backing his contention, BSP supremo Mayawati alleged large scale tampering of EVMs in the recently concluded UP polls and called the Government “cheat.” It led to a brief slanging match between the BJP and BSP. Naresh Agrawal (SP) claimed that a relative of senior BJP leader was awarded the contract for chips of EVM and demanded a probe.
In the lok Sabha, Minister of State for law PP Chaudhary said in a written reply that the information on whether any review has been conducted regarding tampering of EVMs, violation of the Model Code and the funds spent by candidates in the recently-held polls “is being collected and will be laid on the Table of the House.”