Activist Shabnam Hashmi claims EVMs were subjected to "right-wing manipulation", courtesy "mole" in UPA
Following top multinational media chain, Huffington Post, questioning the reliability of electronic voting machines (EVMs) for casting votes (click HERE) in India, well-known social activist Shabnam Hashmi has said she resigned from all UPA committees on December 27, 2012, demanding “the removal of EVM machines as they can be used for manipulations in the elections and undermining our democracy.” She added, she had also “blamed that someone within UPA has connived with right-wing forces to make it happen.” She claimed, with the victory of the BJP in Lok Sabha polls, her suspicion has only intensified.
In its article, published two days ahead of the counting date (May 16), Huffington Post had suspected that the UPA which might “manipulate” the polls by electronically misusing EVMs. It even quoted BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy for this. The media article said, among concerned citizens who got involved in questioning EVMs was “former minister for law, commerce and justice, Dr. Subramaniam Swamy”. Swami “took up the mantle and went to the Supreme Court of India, winning a ruling that the Indian EVMs would at least have to prove a paper trail.”
Hashmi recalled, she had said in her statement that the “use of EVM machines should be abandoned in any future elections. If Gujarat was used as the laboratory of the hate ideology it can also be used as the laboratory of undermining the democracy in India.” Declaring that she stands by her statement, Hasmir claimed, “The kind of manipulation that was done in the 2012 Gujarat elections could not have been done without the connivance of moles within UPA, involvement of Modi's machinery and foreign agencies.”
“As expected my protests were brushed aside and in private talk some senior artists/ activists who raised these questions were told that Shabnam Hashmi was seeing too much and not to give too much importance to what was being said by her”, the social activist said, adding, “The same modus operandi which was experimented and used in Gujarat has been replicated with precision in the national elections.”
Hashmi added, “All television channels and most of the newspapers were bought to constantly give an impression that Modi was winning over 272 seats and the whole country was behind him, a unique mixture of corporatised Hindutva mixed with development jargon was used and sold to the gullible audiences across the nation. A proxie party was created to demolish UPA and sustained campaigned for three years was supported financially.”
Hashmi further said, UPA was attacked from all sides and what UPA did was totally undermined. While there could be many areas where we strongly differ with UPA's policies, we cannot deny that a huge number of meaningful works were also done.” She quotes from the London School of Economics article (read HERE) to justify what she has said in favour of the UPA, adding, “Unless all political parties do not get together and demand the removal of EVMs then no election will be won by any secular party in future.”
Giving some of the media links which doubt EVMs’ workability, she says, she appeals to “Indian citizens who believe in safeguarding democracy and secularism to impress upon all political parties not to leave any stone unturned to go back to the ballot as the first option, or having EVMs with paper trail, where counting of papers also is mandatory, because while the paper shows individuals whom they have voted for, it does not remove the possibility of post voting manipulation, which is the most used method of manipulations.”
“As the news of EVM manipulations is gaining ground a counter is being said that it was done though booth capturing. It is done to dilute the demand of doing away with EVMs. UPA must find out who from within the system in conniving with right wing”, the social activist said, adding, “All countries which had introduced EVMs have abandoned them. We must do away with EVMs if we have to safeguard democracy. If EVMs are not removed then at least I will never engage with any election process because it is meaningless to campaign, vote or stand in election if the results are doctored.”
Links against EVM machines, quoted by Hashmi:
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDIc6iScQZI&list=UUgdeLVm99ox5SXONOJRAgTghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9U0izoe468
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