<<He [i.e. Omar Abdullah] gave his own example of facing defeat in Lok Sabha polls while winning a majority in the Sept assembly polls. “I never blamed the machines,” he said.
He said parties should not contest elections if they do not trust the voting mechanism...>>
[That's the very crux.
If one is certain that the EVMs are being hacked then the only logical response would be to boycott the polls till these machines are trashed.
Just think of it that such an insane move would have saved the BJP the big humiliation, and consequent erosion in legitimacy, of being drastically reduced from 303 to 232 -- well below the bare majority mark -- despite the shrill cry of "over 400 this time!"
Not to forget that if one EVM can be hacked then any and every EVM can be hacked -- with scaling up of efforts input.]
(Ref.: 'Stop blaming EVMs when you lose, Omar Abdullah tells Congress' at
Also look up: ''Why this approach after being CM?': Congress hits back at Omar Abdullah's remark on EVM' at
Also relevant:
I. <<Party president Nitin Gadkari will release a book by the BJP’s election analyst, G.V.L. Narasimha Rao on Friday. Rao’s Democracy at Risk questions the very constitutional validity of EVMs and even cites the ways they can be hacked.>>
That was in in Feb. 2010, when the BJP was consistently losing.
II. As yet no random tallying of the VVPAT slips with the EVM outcomes, being mandatorily carried out, has come up with any mismatch.
Of course, in the era of fast evolving technology and the ECI virtually being the 12th member of the BJP team full transparency and further improvements must be forcefully and consistently demanded.
No doubt about that.
Also the fact that the polls are indeed being manipulated to the advantage of the ruling party in terms of allowing unchecked hate speeches, huge financial assymetry, voters' lists manipulation, vote suppression by using the state machinery etc. needs to be adequately highlighted.
The unsubstantiated clamour about EVMs only helps to distract. It also adds to apathy of the anti-BJP voters.
Sukla