Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal welcomed the Supreme Court’s April 26 order rejecting pleas for the replacement of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), saying that the judgment had “exposed” the desire of Opposition parties, including the Congress, to “defame” the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The Supreme Court also rejected pleas seeking complete cross-verification of votes cast using EVMs with a Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) and said that “blindly distrusting” any aspect of the system can breed unwarranted scepticism. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta delivered two concurring verdicts and dismissed all the pleas in the matter, including those seeking to go back to using ballot papers for voting.
“The Supreme Court in its decision said that the EVM system is all right, it’s credible and there cannot be any tampering with it. The Supreme Court has given a fabulous decision. We welcome this decision on behalf of the BJP,” Mr. Meghwal said, addressing a press conference at the BJP’s national headquarters in New Delhi.
Opposition ‘defamed’ ECI
“The decision has exposed the Congress and other constituents of the Opposition INDIA bloc,” he said, claiming that Opposition parties had taken every opportunity to “defame” the Election Commission of India by raising questions on the credibility of EVMs.
He noted that five Lok Sabha polls and 132 Assembly elections have been conducted using EVMs so far. “Despite this, they raise questions on EVMs. EVMs were all right when the Congress won elections in Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, and Telangana, and the TMC [Trinamool Congress] won the West Bengal Assembly polls. When they lose, they put the blame on EVMs,” Mr. Meghwal said.
It has become a “habit” for Opposition leaders to “defame” the country’s Constitutional institutions, he charged.
