During the day-long Delhi Assembly Special Session on Tuesday, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Greater Kailash MlA Saurabh Bhardwaj claimed to have explained, with the help of a prototype EVM, how the voting machines can be hacked to make a particular political party win elections.
“The ECI can give us its machines (EVMs), we will show how to hack it in 90 seconds by merely changing its motherboard,” said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal after the Assembly session.
Bhardwaj claimed that voting machines can be manipulated by simply feeding it with a “secret code”. “There are two parts of the EVM, one (ballot unit) where the voter presses the button for a particular party while the other (control unit) is for the presiding officer to take the final count of votes,” he said, while demonstrating a mock voting exercise to show the actual and tampered results.
“I am a software engineer by profession. Before joining the AAP, I worked for several software companies for nine years. Thus, I am taking this opportunity to present before the public the reality of EVM hacking.”
While leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta was marshalled out in the beginning of the session as he protested over the alleged land scam. The entire session had not a single mention about the allegations made by the ex-Minister and sacked AAP leader Kapil Mishra.
Bhardwaj claimed when a voter presses the button to cast his/her vote, the EVM sends a code to the control unit that automatically counts the votes. “The votes are marked for a particular party via set codes, while in case of the tampering, the codes are manipulated with a particular party’s code. It is as simple as this,”
Before Bhardwaj’s demonstration, Kejriwal tweeted, “Saurabh Bhardwaj will reveal the truth behind a big conspiracy in the country. Satyameva Jayate”. He challenged the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to leave the EVMs to be used in the upcoming Gujarat Assembly elections for “three hours”. “I challenge you. You will lose the elections,” the Delhi CM said.
Calling for the attention of the public, Bhardwaj said EVM tampering is “real” but to get the common people of India accept the “truth”, it might take time but it “must be addressed,” he added. “EVM manipulation is a very serious issue. It is danger to the democracy of the country.
There is no machine in the world which cannot be hacked.”
Bhardwaj also presented a resolution after his EVM demonstration urging the EC and President of India Pranab Mukherjee to include the VVPAT system.
Asking the legislators to give a standing ovation to Bhardwaj’s efforts of “proving EVM hacking”, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said this issue was brought to the Assembly because “it is about the country and democracy”.
“There are many countries where democracy has weakened but in India democracy has stayed till now because of the asset of voting rights to all its citizens. These voting rights are the essence of Indian Constitution and since 1952, it has been practiced by each citizens whether in Arunachal Pradesh or Kashmir,” Sisodia told the Assembly.
Recalling his days of journalism, Sisodia said there was a time when “rigging of votes was done on gun point” but slowly the process was strengthened.