Tricky EVMs or trustworthy paper ballot?

The just concluded elections in Andhra Pradesh would go down in the political history of the residual State as a unique one and would perhaps set an example for the future generations.

People of the State have proved that they are second to none in determination and once they take it to their heart, they would face any kind of situation to exercise their constitutional right to vote.

In fact, the voter turnout this time was something unprecedented. Even when NTR came to power in just eight months of forming the TDP, the voter turnout was only around 68 percent. But this time, it has gone up to over 77 percent.

For all those who closely watched the day's development and the manner in which the polls were conducted, it raises several questions. The most fundamental question that is soon likely to become a national issue is how independent the Election Commission of India is?

Now let's take a look at the manner in which the EC functioned in regard to Andhra Pradesh before and after the poll notification was issued. The EC has the powers to transfer officials if it finds that someone is not following the rules and the code of conduct.

But in case of AP, all top police officials were transferred within 24 hours of complaint by the Opposition party without any investigation. What was more, even the Chief Secretary was shifted.

This is something which is normally not done. When there were similar allegations against some officials in Telangana during the Assembly elections held in December by the main Opposition, there was no action.

Though lakhs of names of voters went missing from the list, the EC did not batter even an eyelid. All that the CEO had said after the elections was a big sorry.

Though the CEO of AP had asked for over 300 companies of Central forces to conduct polls in a free and fair manner, only about 197 companies or so were sent. What is more interesting is that the CEO did not tell the EC how difficult it would be to hold elections with such a little force.

It was also noticed that the forces that were deployed could not act in time as there was language problem. When there was an attack on the Speaker of the State Assembly on the polling day, though armed police were guarding the queue lines, nothing was done to prevent the incident or take the culprits into custody because they did not know what was happening inside and who was saying that the local police too did not ask them to intervene.

Why, no one knows. Were they demoralised due to transfers of several top police officials including the Superintendent of Police is the big question that needs to be pondered over.

Another issue is about the electronic voting machines. Are they hack proof? Should one go back to the system of paper ballot? If so, will it be a retrograde step?

The first and the foremost issue that needs to be looked into is how effective the EC is?

Never in the last four decades, one would have witnessed people standing in long queues bracing the hot and humid weather conditions till early hours of the next day.

Perhaps the return of voters, particularly women and old people who had left the polling booths without casting vote due to technical glitches, malfunctioning of EVMs etc are also something that need to be taken note of.

They not only returned to the polling booths but also refused to go back without exercising their franchise. What was the driving force that made them to do what they did? Well, this is what needs a careful and unbiased study.

One thing the common man on the streets of Andhra Pradesh feels is that the EC has failed miserably. First, it failed in ensuring that the names of genuine voters were not deleted.

Then it failed in smooth conduct of the elections and made people think that paper ballot is a better option. It is an undeniable fact that the staff was not well trained to handle the technical problems and could not rectify the EVMs fast. It is also a record that 35 percent of EVMs failed to function properly.

This is going to become an issue of national debate and the Opposition would utilise it to argue their ongoing case in Supreme Court demanding that paper ballot system be reintroduced.

So far, it was thought that voter fraud allegations tend to be cyclical in Indian politics. A party when in power would support EVMs and oppose when in Opposition. But then let us take a quick look at the strong Opposition that has come in 2019.

AICC president Rahul Gandhi, Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh, Lalu Prasad in Bihar, Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi and Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh and a host of other leaders have been arguing that EVMs cannot be trusted and that the democracy was at risk.

The BJP, which was now defending the EVMs and feels that going back to paper ballot would be retrograde step, was vociferous in its demand to do away with EVMs. It had even come with a book 'Democracy at Risk' with a foreword from L K Advani.

Those who argue in favour of the EVMs say that they are manufactured by two highly reputable public sector undertakings exclusively for EC. They also argue that unlike EVMs used in many other countries, these can neither be networked by wire or by wireless to any other machine or system, nor can they be influenced by signals from computers or mobile phones.

The software is burnt into a one-time programmable chip which cannot be altered. The source code of the software is not available even to the Election Commission. Further improvements in the latest generation of machines will cause them to shut down upon the slightest attempt to tamper.

All that sounds music to ears. But what needs to looked into is that who has to handle them during elections? The two manufacturing companies obviously cannot have staff to be deployed in all the polling booths across the State during general elections.

Hence the easy option is to train the electoral staff. The electoral staff are drawn from various sectors like government employees, teachers from government schools etc. They are not technically qualified.

All that they learn is how to switch on the machine. How to conduct mock poll, how to press the button to activate the machine etc. Officials are posted to their respective stations at random, just 24 hours before polling.

When serious glitches like the one that was witnessed in the AP elections arise, the officials including the returning officers fail to take speedy action. The mechanics who are called can check electrical connections but cannot handle complicated issues.

The CEO of Andhra Pradesh could not cast his vote as the EVM refused to work. He told them "change if fast." But then that kind concern was not shown in case of EVMs that failed to work in all other booths.

When I cast my first vote in 1977 in New Delhi, that was the time when people had come out of their houses to vote against emergency. The anger was clearly visible on their faces and they were clear in their mind to oust the Congress government led by Indira Gandhi.

There were long queues from 6 am though the polling booths opened at 7 am. The maximum time it took for me to cast my vote in a serpentine queue was about one and a half hour.

But in 2014 elections, when I exercised my right, the time it took was two and a half hours as the EVMs in the polling booth refused to cooperate in the capital city of Hyderabad though I was tenth in the queue when the doors of polling booth were opened for voters.

If technology can make our lives easy, certainly it should be used. But a second thought should be given if it makes our life miserable.

We should first put the necessary infrastructure in place before we use technology on such a large scale. Till then paper ballot may not be a bad idea.