Hyderabad: Amid a debate over the trustworthiness of the electronic voting machines, former Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath said Friday the Election Commission always tries to see that stakeholders have faith in the EVMs without taking criticism against it lightly.
He said the Commission takes criticism very seriously. “The fact is, whatever criticism, Election Commission takes very seriously. It is not sufficient if we have faith in the machine. It is always our motto people should have faith in the machines. Stakeholders, particularly political parties, they should have faith in the machine,” he said.
“Any number of times, 2010, we organised an opportunity for people, come, demonstrate. We will see with an open mind. Same thing happened during 2017 also. After, we all had left the Commission,” he said.
He was speaking at the launch of a book ‘EVM The true story’ here Friday night. He, however, said EVMs would continue to be an issue in Indian elections, “depending upon which side of the goalpost you are. But, if the teething troubles with the devices can be got over with VVPAT, it will put an end to the discourse about EVMs. No court has ever said EVMs are manipulated.”
“In fact, in both the Delhi High Court judgment, Supreme Court judgment, they said it is not the case of even the petitioners that EVMs are manipulated. Nobody ever said before judicial fora that EVMs were manipulated. But, they were saying, they were liable to be manipulated,” he said. Another former CEC, J M Lyngdoh, also spoke on the occasion.