Will abolishing EVMs solve fundemental problems of India's political system?

There are anti EVM activists who want abolishing of EVMs and having elections by Ballot paper. I agree with these anti EVM activists on certain things.


1. I believe that EVM hacking can happen, EVMs can be manipulated & tampering is possible. I do not believe Govt & election commission on their claim that EVM are full proof from all manipulation.

2. I believe that we need to ban digital elections for sake of transparency & accountability. I agree with Germany's Supreme Court order on banning electronic voting machines which takes into account the fundamental flaw in elections through electronic machines.

3. I do not have a concrete evidence of manipulation of EVM but i have suspicions & anecdotal evidence that EVM manipulation has happened (UP 2017 & Lok Sabha 2019 are two interesting cases). I also believe that EC is not being transparent about many issues related to EVMs.


But i have certain disagreements with Anti EVM activists. 

Many anti EVM activists believe that EVM is the ROOT cause of all problems in India. EVM is root cause of Fascism of BJP, Communal violence, corruption, sinking economy, chaos & anarchy in India. Modi has rigged EVMs and imposed a Fascist dictatorial rule on India which has created all these problems. Anti EVM activists see Ballot paper as a panacea and believe that abolishing EVMs will solve all India's problems. This is not really true.


1. Communalization of Politics had happened long before Modi. Ayodhya Politics, 1990 Rath Yatra & nationwide Riots & Hindu Muslim conflicts had already been orchestrated by BJP long before Modi. In those days, the architects of communal politics were leaders like LK Advani, Uma Bharti, Murli Manohar Joshi, Kalyan Singh etc. They were the ones who actually built BJP into a national party from scratch based on communal politics & Hindu vote bank.

BJP which started as Political party with just 2 seats in Parliament in 1984 became a formidable force by 1991 reaching as much as 120 seats by exploiting on Ram Janambhoomi & Rath Yatra communal Politics.  By 1996 (after Babri Masjid demolition), BJP had reaped massive political gains on its communal Politics & established itself as main opposition party (161 seats). By 1998, BJP won Lok Sabha elections (with 182 seats) & established itself as a major political force in Center as well as many different states even before EVM came into the picture. After unstable coalition Govt fell, there were re-elections in 1999, which BJP won once again & forming full tenure Govt this time. All these victories of BJP & its establishment as main political force happened on BALLOT PAPER elections, not on EVMs. (EVM trial run on few constituencies started from 1998 & it was finally implemented in 2004 general elections).

The argument by some anti EVM activists that people won't vote for a Political party if it do riots & communal violence is non sense. Political parties and Politicians have built their careers on Communal riots, mass murders & Genocide. BJP went from 2 seats to 100 seats & finally to 182 seats, all on Ballot paper & all on politics of Hindu-Muslim Mandir-Masjid etc. So Advani took BJP from 2 to 182 seats - that's increase by 91 Times, without any EVM.

Communalism is not limited to BJP & RSS. Even before BJP emerged as a national force, anti Sikh communal riots had took place in India. Lynching of Sikhs on streets, mass murders & genocide of 1980s are well known to people. And many Politicians who orchestrated those riots later won the elections & consolidated power. Even till this date, there is no justice for Sikh riot victims. Congress won a land slide victory in elections even after orchestrating anti Sikh Communal riots & Sikh Genocide in 1984.


2. Fascism subject needs intellectual debate. What is Fascism? How does Fascism emerge? These are interesting subjects. Fascism emerges in nation which has a desperate unemployed poor backward population. Fascism emerge in depressed & collapsed economies with falling standards of living. This poor desperate backward population is duped by demagogue Politicians on racial, ethnic & religious lines. In 1920s, Italy's Fascist movement emerged after early recession in Italy & Europe. In Germany, the Fascist movement emerged after collapse of economy due to hyperinflation & mass unemployment. The period of 1920s & 1930s of early recessions in Europe & finally the Great Depression destroyed economies & living standards of people. People lost their life savings, their jobs, their personal belongings & pretty much everything. People were desperate, unemployed, depressed & demoralized. This was the situation which was exploited by people like Hitler & Mussolini by driving poor desperate people towards nationalism & scapegoating minorities like Jews.

There were no Electronic voting machines in Europe. Mussolini & Hitler consolidated their power without any EVMs. (They also used other illegal methods like false flag operations, communal politics targeting Jews etc, murdering political opponents & activists & other criminal acts). I do NOT believe that EVMs have created BJP's Fascism. I can agree that BJP is a Fascist force which is manipulating EVMs, but BJP emerged long before EVMs.


3. Indian economy had already collapsed before EVMs. Throughout 60s, 70s & 80s, Indian economy had huge poverty, inequality, high unemployment, high inflation, lack of industry, falling standards of living & currency pressures. India was regularly going to international lenders with begging bowl to get money. Every few years, India was approaching IMF or world bank for loans to avoid defaults or prop up its failing economy. All these problems culminated by 1990-91 when we had Balance of Payment crisis which was arguably the biggest economic crisis of India. Through all these years, Indian Govt was elected by Ballot Papers. Ballot paper produced politicians just as incompetent & corrupt like we have in present times.

Right now, people criticize BJP of being under the influence of corrupt oligarchs like Ambani & Adani. Under IMF & world bank conditionality, our Govt was under the influence of foreign lenders, our economic & budget policies were dictated & decided by those lenders from abroad. And Of course Businessmen like Ambani, Tata, Birla etc were also influencing the Govt even in those days.


4. India has had massive corruption throughout its history. Rajiv Gandhi in 1985 concluded that for every one Rupee spent by Govt on people welfare, only 15 paisa actually reach the people. Rest of 85% of spending is sucked by corrupt Govt apparatus at various levels. India was riddled with scams & scandals throughout its history since independence.


5. Indian Democracy faced crisis like National Emergency much before BJP came to power. Oppression of people, throwing activists & students in prison, suppressing media freedom & suspending civil rights. This is not new to India as it has already happened under emergency rule. More than one lakh people were arrested without trial during 20 months of national emergency. There were also other atrocious acts like force sterilizations of 83 Lakh people specially those in poverty.


6. There is an argument by anti EVM activists that since BJP is a Fascist, corrupt, communal & incompetent party, no one will vote for BJP and BJP can only win elections on based on EVM. Since BJP has destroyed India's economy, threw people into poverty & joblessness, nobody will vote for BJP.

Basically, just because an anti EVM activist believes that BJP is not worth voting for, it PROVES that BJP is rigging EVMs because logically people would never vote for Fascist, corrupt & incompetent party. This assertion is wrong. Democracies may commit suicide. People can vote for bad politicians even when they are highly destructive for country.

An international perspective about Rise of right wing nationalism in the world. Many countries in Europe are drifting towards right wing extremism & Neo Nazi ideology. Boris Johnson has taken over UK with leadership of Tory Party. Tory Party is right wing anti Labor anti immigrant reactionary party in UK which has has destroyed UK's working class, national healthcare system, welfare programs & social benefits to poor people. Inequality & poverty in UK is all time high.

But despite all the economic disasters in UK, Tory Party in has managed to defeat opposition Labor party in UK in last four general elections. How? By politics of polarization & division. By Islamophobia, spreading fear of immigrants, propaganda about threat of European integration, by spreading disinformation and many shrewd tactics.

Similarly there is rise of Neo Nazi Party called AfD in Germany which has become 3rd largest party in German Parliament. UK, Germany and several other European democracies have electoral system based on Ballot paper. Still, they are seeing resurgence of right wing extremism & rise of nationalist parties in their political system.



My conclusion on EVM & Politics


Even if you abolish the EVM, the underlying problems of our Political system & our county will still be there. These problems existed long before EVMs and they will continue to exist even if you abolish EVM. So fighting against EVM is good, but you also need to think about underlying problems.

BJP may still win elections without EVMs. My argument - Fascism emerged and consolidated power without any EVMs in the past. Fascism is not related to EVMs but its a complex political & socioeconomic phenomenon. I believe that India's situation like poverty, inequality, backwardness, economic depression, unemployment is the breeding ground of fascism. These problems existed long before BJP & Modi. Modi is actually a CULMINATION of our failed political system. A system which was failing & decaying since long time and eventually resulted in Fascist psychopathic dictator like Modi coming to power.

One thing i have noticed is that, a lot of anti EVM activists are misguided, misdirected, misinformed & have developed a "Conspiracy theory" mindset. They latch onto every EVM rumor & disinformation. I also believe that BJP itself is promoting a lot of anti EVM messaging. I think, there is a strategy, to divert people's attention & keep them occupied into EVM controversy so that people should not questions the broader & bigger problems in our political system. I strongly believe that January 2019 Press conference in London on EVM was actually organized by BJP to fool & misguide people. Press conference where some anonymous person was throwing all kind of wild allegations & conspiracy theories about EVMs without presenting any proof or evidence. These kind of theories are actually propagated to misguide & misdirect people.

My advice to anti EVM protesters - Continue raising your voice against EVMs but also broaden your thinking. I would say that you should analyze our problems from a broader perspective (my thinking). I very much think that India needs ELECTORAL reforms & reform of our POLITICAL STRUCTURE (i will elaborate on this idea in future). And of course banning Digital elections is needed but its just one of the steps among many other electoral reforms in my opinion. My approach is much broader, not limited to banning only EVMs.