In a noteworthy ruling, the Supreme Court (SC) dismissed the petitions seeking 100% verification of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips and rejected all other pleas of the petitioners, including one that would take the country back to the system of paper ballots. The Supreme Court also underlined the need to "exercise care and caution" when raising questions about the integrity of the electoral process. The SC bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta reiterated the Court's confidence in EVMs and the protocols to ensure they cannot be manipulated.
The voter's rights are protected in other ways, including the seven-second display of the VVPAT slip through the glass window, which enables her to know and verify the serial number, the candidate, and the symbol for whom she has voted, the court said. The SC's reasoning against returning to the ballot paper system is sound: any return to this system would bring back booth capture. EVM prevents bogus voting by restricting the rate of vote casting to four votes per minute.
What is troubling is that this campaign against EVM is not a fact-driven critique. The allegations made by the petitioners in the courtroom and by opposition leaders outside the courtroom lack not only consistency but also evidence. As of April 2024, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is ruling in 17 states and union territories, while the rest are ruling by the opposition. The notable point is that when one of the opposition parties faces defeat in any particular election, they raise their voice about the EVM being tampered with. So, it is contemptible to claim such instances just because you have not won that particular election. Instead of this, the opposition should avoid undermining the public's trust in the electoral process to cover its repeated failures.
At this juncture, it might be beneficial for the opposition to genuinely reflect. And turn their energies towards addressing the real issues faced by the Indian electorate.
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