so let's raise the big questions tonight evm hacking as is being alleged where is the proof is the Congress making EVMS the scapegoat for its defeat should the election commission now be relooking at the entire voting process should we be returning and that's the big question should we now return to paper ballots are there a better system than the EVMS just some of the questions we'll rais tonight my first guest is Drs y quesi former Chief election commissioner joins me Drquesi your thoughts with the Maharashtra defeat suddenly once again we are hearing talk that EVMS are manipulated we need to go back to ballot boxes how do you respond to that do you believe there is any Merit at all well there kind of uh agitation as uh we have seen of all these years after every election but today I think after the Supreme Court has cleaned the issue and they said there is no going back to the ballot paper I think the debate should be around the Supreme Court decision and I find that that is not being mentioned only what the opposition leaders and others are demanding but I have been defending the evm because uh uh at least in my time when I saw the working there are so many checks so many controls on this that it isoss to um man to manipulate it in fact the peak of evm controversy was in 2009 and the biggest critic was BJP and no other and they even went to the extent of writing a book called democracy at risk with forward by mrani and the when I took over a CCI immediately called an all party meeting and I said which was led surprisingly by the trra Babu Naidu a technology icon and I said look what is your complaint let us understand and he say look we are not saying that EVMS have manipulated the result in the past or they're going to do it in the future all we are saying that they lack trans ercy M which means when you press a button where is the vot going we really physically cannot see I said what is the solution he says introduce bvad voter verifiable paper auditory and he explained how how it will work and believe me in the same meeting we took the decision it's a very good suggestion we decided to adopt it we wrote to the two factories to start developing it so now the focus in the of the debate should be entirely on bvad where there are some unanswered questions for sure are you saying are you saying now there are two views uh I was yesterday at a discussion where Mrchamaram said that he has no problem with EVMS but they should be backed by a verified paper trail that goes up to 100% in the case of uh of closed contest and every voter must have the right to know maybe in a separate Ballot Box that verified paper trail slip should be there and 100% counting should be done do you agree 100% counting of verified paper trail well actually I was there in that event uh which was your book launch function and I have said it myself many times that if the nation starts doubting something that's a very dangerous uh situation and therefore even if if I was in the in the position I would count 100% once for all look I'm going to do it but after that it stop counting otherwise my formulation is much simpler 100% might take time 24 hours doesn't matter the nation wait for two months three months one more day will not matter you are a cricket fan and I say you know if we were say we were to say that only 5% of lbw decision will go up to the third Empire it will lead you nowhere only the suspicious decisions are taken up therefore I say that instead of randomly selecting five machines only select five machines on which the top to Runners up put their finger look I am suspicious about this please count it it's so easy why the the commission not even considering it so so you're saying there needs to be some relook at the way the verified paper trail operates one the other question uh MrDrkuresi particularly after Maharashtra and we saw it even in the general elections and harana that voting percentage goes up very sharply now between provisional figures at 5:00 p. m. and what the figures are the next day in Mahar R was 55% at 5:00 p.
m. next day eventually ended up at 68 is that is that something that is that is curious is there a curiosity that 133% rise between 5:00 p. m.
and the next day yes that surely worries me because these figures are real time when you go to vote and I go to vote there is a form 17A and our attendance is being marked with time 8:00 88 5 8 10 8 and at any given point 300 votes have been CA somebody comes and media person comes or Observer comes how many votes have been cost the the presiding officer looks at the last line and he said 320 votes have been C so that is real time and at the end of the day form 17 see the total of all the happenings of the day the and without finishing the 17c form and getting the signatures of the C the agent sitting there he cannot go home so this is a real time data generated the same day how can the data change the next day even I fail to understand and it it had even gone up to the Supreme Court five years ago Supreme Court did not clinch it which surprises me that is something which has to be answer what could be going what do you think from your experience why should 55% at 5:00 p. m. end up at 68% final figure a 133% rise if it's in real time you can't have so many you can't have 1/4 of the voters surely voting after 5:00 p.
m.
