Express View on Congress and EVM controversy: Ghost in the machine

After the Maharashtra election results, there is a stir in the Congress and some of its allies are also joining it. This is the voice of a loser. “We should start a movement for return of paper ballot” says party president Mallikarjun Kharge. Congress leaders say that EVM is defective. That’s not to say the Congress hasn’t tried to blame its election defeat on voting machines before – most recently after last month’s Haryana results. But its comprehensive defeat at the hands of Maharashtra voters seems to have left it particularly disheartened. The party is entitled to be nervous. But being the leading party of the opposition, it is also its duty to be responsible for the defeat. He should know that attacking the established process of free and fair elections and the rules of the game that govern it is a step too far – it cannot be taken lightly. It must be based on verifiable evidence, of which there is none yet; Not on “gut feeling” or a wounded sense of entitlement, or a desperate desire to find a fallen man.

Congress’s search for answers, which has now reached its final stage of conspiracy theory, began in 2014, when Narendra Modi-led BJP Came to power at the Center for the first time. Its return for a third term in 2019 and in 2024, and several assembly elections won by the BJP in between, have pushed the Congress deeper into inconsistency. It has also forced him to undermine his own and his colleagues’ successes. Congress recently won Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh, and defeated BJP in the Lok Sabha elections Rajasthan, Maharashtra And UP. Even though it suffered defeat in Maharashtra, its ally JMM has brought it back to power in Jharkhand – to say that the BJP “let JMM “win” in Jharkhand is mean-spirited, at best, and absurd at best, at best. Even better, hijack the mandate in Maharashtra. This search for easy and imaginary villains, this politics of sticking pins in voodoo dolls, is increasing. This is preventing Congress from doing an honest count. She needs to ask herself whether she is giving voters a reason to vote for her – or is she merely criticizing the BJP? Is it avoiding the big questions because of its own flawed record, or because of a lack of conviction and clarity? Is its strategy of going hyper-local a cop-out in response to the BJP’s choreography of larger, ideology-laden narratives? When its leader, Rahul Gandhi Has a strong point of view, does his own weak CV get in the way, or the inability or unwillingness of local congressmen and women to take their cues from him?

At the same time, it is true that the conduct of the election watchdog, the Election Commission, leaves much to be desired. When it comes to the ruling party, it wears kid gloves; It has been slow to address its violations of the code of conduct. The opposition may have chosen blunt words in its attack, but the language of the Election Commission’s official responses has been bitter and angry, as if it were the text of a political party and not a constitutional authority. The electoral system has flaws – any playing field becomes skewed when on one side there is a three-term government with a vast array of resources, from financial to institutional – but it has served this large and diverse country well. Has, and continues to set an example. Sharad Pawar has asked his party’s candidates to find “evidence” to foil the EVM conspiracy. This quest must certainly continue, no stakeholder would want otherwise, but it would be better if the Congress does not impose its internal crisis on the system. Some of its allies have been more discreet in their response. Other players like AAP, which has started making conspiratorial noises ahead of the upcoming Delhi elections, should also take a deep breath, look at the voter – and, most importantly, look within themselves.