'Tight slap to opposition': PM Modi after VVPAT pleas rejected
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has hailed the Supreme Court's decision to reject pleas seeking 100% cross-verification of votes cast on electronic voting machines (EVMs) with slips generated by the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). Shortly after the verdict, the prime minister said the opposition should apologize for casting doubt on EVMs. "The Supreme Court has given a tight slap on the face of the opposition, who used to cry for EVMs," PM Modi said at a rally in Bihar.
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The opposition has been demanding that all VVPAT slips be cross-checked against EVM votes to maintain the electoral process's integrity. The petitions for the same were filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and activist Arun Kumar Agarwal. The ADR petitioned the court to direct the Election Commission of India and the Centre to ensure that voters can use VVPATs to verify their votes. Currently, the ECI randomly verifies VVPAT slips of EVMs from five booths per assembly segment.
PM Modi demands apology from opposition
At the rally, he also accused the Congress of planning to strip away rights of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes (OBCs). "Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar has said in very clear words, that India cannot have religion-based reservations, but Congress is trying its best to implement religion-based reservations.It is trying to implement the Karnataka model of reservation in the country," he added. "They have betrayed the OBC community and included all Muslims of Karnataka in the OBC list."
SC examined protocols, technical aspects before dismissing petitions: Justice
While dismissing the pleas, the Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta clarified that it had thoroughly examined protocols and technical aspects. Justice Khanna stated that requests for reverting to ballot paper voting, full EVM-VVPAT verification, and providing VVPAT slips to voters were all turned down. Justice Datta, on the other hand, emphasized that democracy is about fostering harmony and trust among all institutions, warning that unwarranted skepticism can be harmful.
EVMs are non-tamperable: ECI
The Supreme Court ruling is also a big boost for the ECI, which claimed that the pleas were yet another attempt to cast doubt on the operation of EVMs and VVPATs on "vague and unsubstantiated" grounds. It also noted that physically counting all VVPAT paper slips, as requested in the petition, would be a time-consuming procedure prone to "human error and "mischief." The ECI claimed that EVMs are non-tamperable.
