Election System is Being Weaponised, Will Opposition Act?

Any minute tracking of some recent developments in the electoral arena—fast-tracking the coercive One Nation One Election (ONOE) proposal, the anti-South delimitation exercise, reviving the E-Voting proposal and the most latest, the EPIC duplication scam—leads to one obvious concern. Are these moves by a minority government at the centre not in any way linked to the year, 2025, the centenary year of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)?

Dhirendra K. Jha’s new book, “Golwalkar: The Myth behind the Man, The Man behind the Machine” says this: “Golwalkar’s promise of denying Muslims citizens’ rights is being lived out, from the legislature to the rhythms of their daily lives. Politically, they have been virtually invisibilised… All this enjoys such widespread approval in the Sangh Parivar because it corresponds to Golwalkar’s ideas and the historical destiny he set out for the RSS—to convert India into a Hindu Rashtra….” [1]

Then comes the commentary on Golwalkar’s book “Bunch of Thoughts”:

“…A fact that stands out is that the idea of ONOE closely resembles the vision of Madhav Sadashiv Rao Golwalkar, the second chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Golwalkar was a strong advocate for a country with a unitary form of government…. In his famous 1966 book Bunch of Thoughts–which is considered as the bible of the RSS–Golwalkar, who at the time was the sarsanghchalak of the RSS, had lambasted the federal structure of India, with the word “One Nation” figuring multiple times in the book.” [2]

Now, note this latest on ONOE: “Former Chief Justice of India (CJI) UU Lalit told a joint parliamentary committee that he supported the larger plan of simultaneous elections but added that it cannot be rolled out in one go and would require several phases, according to people aware of the matter.” [3] He pointed out that any “substantive curtailment” of the tenure of the state assemblies—one of the steps suggested by a high-level committee led by former President Ram Nath Kovind—can lead to justifiable legal challenges over violation of the Constitution’s basic structure doctrine.

These developments come close on the heels of the (once again) arbitrary appointment of a Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) –Gyanesh Kumar–who has reportedly worked closely with the Union Home Minister.[4] To facilitate these moves, his illustrious predecessor has successfully weaponised India’s Election System (IES) and has now retired to the Himalayas to ‘detoxify’ himself![5] Recent moves by the Modi regime –ignoring a November 2023 judgement of the Supreme Court[6] — have brought the appointment of Election Commissioners totally under the purview of the political executive and government of the day. In 2023, post the passage of the five member judgement, the Union Government hastily enacted a law in contravention of the Court’s conclusions. [7]These moves have destroyed whatever was left of the independence and integrity of the ECI.

It is the constitutional right of universal adult franchise, guaranteed under Article 326 of the Constitution of India that grants the right to vote to all adult citizens, irrespective of their caste, creed or religion. It is this right that makes the minority communities at par with the majority and the depressed castes equal to privileged castes. The recently weaponised IES however, threatens this constitutional core by making possible large-scale spurious injection of votes through questionable, non-transparent practices on the one hand and deletion/exclusion of targeted sections of voters on the others. This has lead and is leading to the stealing of a genuine people’s mandate. If unchecked at this stage, this could render the right to universal adult franchise meaningless!

The EVM-centred IES has four critical components. Microchips to record the votes as cast by the voter, Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPATs) to audit and verify that the votes are counted as recorded and Symbol Loading Units (SLUs) that upload the name and symbol of the candidates contesting on a particular seat on VVPAT or paper trail machines roughly 10-15 days before. The fact that post 2017, the EVS (electronic voting system) is no more stand-alone but linked to the internet with the SLU having a labile memory has made the system susceptible to manipulation/meddling. The fourth critical component in the IES is Electoral Roll which is the voter’s list.

The integrity of the microchips in the SLU is suspect because only a select few from the ECI, government and directors on the board of public sector undertakings BEL and ECIL—found to have links  with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) know about their design and source. [8] According to technical experts, the EVM contains multiple labile memories that records each vote as it is cast. The system also has the key to candidate mapping in the labile memory since this varies in each constituency and is needed to print the contents of each VVPAT slip.[9] The presence of labile memory implies that those values can be manipulated if access is available in any manner, externally. Some manipulations may not leave any trace and will not be visible in a forensic investigation. What is worse, SLUs are not subject to any security protocol! The SLU is not, after or before election stored in the strong-room.

While hearing a petition by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), on whose plea the court had given its April 2024 order to verify the microchips in 5% of EVMs in an Assembly constituency, the Supreme Court asked the ECI to ensure that no data is deleted from the EVMs. After the court order in April 2024, the ECI came out with its SOP for checking and verification in July 2024 which states that a mock poll of up to 1,400 votes per machine will be conducted and the result tallied with the VVPAT slips ( If the results match, the machines would be considered to have passed the test.) ADR has argued that the SOP does not provide for actual verification of the microchips installed in the EVMs and VVPATs. [10]The entire thing appears to be a farce and ECI appears determined on protecting the microchips that seems to have been compromised!

To make the EVM system auditable and voter-verifiable, Supreme Court had, in 2013, ordered introduction of VVPAs. But in defiance of this order of the Supreme Court, the ECI, in February 2018 directed State Chief Electoral Officers to mandatorily verify VVPAT slips in only one randomly selected polling station in each assembly constituency.[11] This abysmally low 0.3% sample size defeated the very object of installing VVPATs in all EVMs which is also tantamount to a non-implementation of Supreme Court Order. Inexplicably and unfortunately, the ECI, through bluff and bluster has succeeded in obfuscating this core issue since, in subsequent hearings before the same court.

According to experts, this deliberate denial of verifiability and auditability has facilitated spurious injection of votes in various constituencies by the hiking of vote percentages in all phases of polling. There are astounding mismatches/spikes (7 to 12%) between the figures of votes polled and made available immediately after polls and before counting in the 2024 Lok Sabha as well as to the state assemblies of Haryana and Maharashtra which have become the subject of raging controversy. This, coupled with the failure of the ECI to provide 17-C forms -the ultimate arbiter/proof of votes polled–to all candidates/their agents and also to make these public, have triggered the suspicion of ‘stealing of mandate’, an allegation that has gained wide currency. 

Another layer of manipulation

In July 2023, Dr Sabyasachi Das of Ashoka University published a report called “Democratic Backsliding in the World’s Largest Democracy” which outlined two manipulations in detail that were carried out in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

1) Registration manipulation, which is the padding of the electoral roll. By adding and deleting voters strategically. By manufacturing fake voters, most, if not all, of whom vote for the BJP.

2) Turnout manipulation, which is the addition of voter tallies after the polls have closed-most, if not all, of whom vote for the BJP.[12]

Examples were given, claims supported. Soon thereafter Ashoka University was raided[13] and given a strict warning by the Government. Dr Sabyasachi Das was fired thus, giving a clear signal to all universities and institutions in India, to not pursue any research pertaining to the electoral system in India. I have myself experienced this in another leading private university.[14]  In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, arguably, Das’s findings could be said to have come true. There are well-documented data analysed reports that suggest that electoral manipulation has –for the past six years at least– been pursued in a systematic manner.

Linking Aadhar with the Voter ID could also facilitate ‘registration manipulation’ causing mass disenfranchisement.[15] This linkage could well be the cause for the current controversy concerning duplicate Electronic Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) which has been raised by West Bengal’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) and admitted by the ECI! [16]

The root cause behind the voter registration manipulation is Rule 18 of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, which allows for deletion of voter data without notice or an opportunity to be heard by the affected citizen. And, tragically, the Supreme Court allowed this unconstitutional rule which violates the basic right of the citizen to stay in the statute book. [17] This has led to large scale deletion/addition of votes just before elections as was exposed in Maharashtra.

Muslims, Christians, Dalits and Adivasis are the main targets for this “electoral roll purge.” For the 2019 Lok Sabha election India had nearly 900 million registered voters and there has been reports of mass deletion of names from voters’ lists from Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Delhi. An initiative called Missing Voters, estimates that a whopping 120 million Indians are not on the voters’ lists. Of these around 40 million are Muslims while 30 million are Dalits.[18]

 One example six years ago, from the south reveals how voters from the miniscule Christian community have been possibly disenfranchised.[19]  The case of the Kanyakumari Constituency in Tamil Nadu with about 16 lakh (1.6 million) voters’ 45% of whom are Christian and about 5% Muslim—during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections here, in this constituency, more than 30,000 votes were found to be deleted. 

The outcome of such disenfranchisement is already visible: “The eighteenth Lok Sabha (2024) has the lowest share of Muslim MPs in six decades. Less than 5% of its members currently are Muslims despite people from the community forming over 15% of the country’s population. In total, there are currently 24 Muslim MPs (4.4%) in the Lok Sabha. Notably, the record low occurred despite a considerable spike in the share of Muslim MPs from the Indian National Congress, the second-biggest party in the current Lok Sabha. The party with the most members in 2024, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has no representatives from the Muslim community currently. In fact, the decline in the share of the Muslim MPs in the Lok Sabha, in the 1990s, coincided with the rise of the BJP, whose total MP tally crossed the 100 mark for the first time in the 10th Lok Sabha (1991-96).” [20]

Across India’s 28 states, Muslims hold roughly 6% of the seats in state legislatures, which is less than half of their national population percentage. The representation of Christians is no better.

As of the latest available data, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tenure, there is almost total absence of Muslim and Christian ministers in the union cabinet.

KB Hedgewar, founder of RSS had openly declared that its aim was not to oppose the British and join the movement for independence but to oppose the yavana (barbarian) snakes (Muslims), who are our real enemies. [21]His lieutenant, MS Golwalkar, who, since June 1940, had been the sarsanghchalak (supreme leader) of RSS, went further and wrote this in 1938: “The non-Hindu people in Hindustan must adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence the Hindu religion, and must entertain no idea but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and culture… They may stay in the country wholly subordinate to the Hindu nation, claim nothing, deserve no privileges, far less any preferential treatment, not even citizens’ rights. (Book: We or Our Nationhood Defined).[22]

It is the same Golwalkar who had also given this dastardly call: “Hindus, don’t waste your energy fighting the British; save your energy to fight our internal enemies, which are Muslims, Christians, and Communists.”.[23] Which better way of ‘finishing of’ these ‘internal enemies’ than disenfranchising them!! This could be achieved by the weaponised IES as eloquently displayed in Maharashtra where RSS originated and is headquartered! As it is excessive governmental authority, money power, media surrender and non-implementation of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) have ensured that there is no level playing field!

Now, because of the near total, apparent, caving-in of the political opposition there is a strong possibility that this modus operandi could be replicated throughout the country including the Dravidian fortress of Tamil Nadu. The way IES is being weaponised was discussed and debated at the one-day Civil Society-Political Parties Conference hosted by Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG) on August 13, 2022 wherein eleven opposition parties participated and resolved to fight against ‘misuse’ of EVMs, money power and media.

The Conference claimed that EVMs cannot be assumed to be tamper-proof and resolved thus: “The voting process should be redesigned to be software and hardware independent in order to be verifiable or auditable. The VVPAT (voter verifiable paper audit trail) system should be re-designed to be fully voter-verified. A voter should be able to get the VVPAT slip and cast it in a chip-free ballot box for the vote to be valid and counted.”[24]

At the time, two years ago, the Indian National Congress (INC) assumed the responsibility to take this resolution to the ECI and carry it forward. But this never happened. Nevertheless, citizens did not relent and, in August 2023, submitted a Memorandum to ECI signed by about 10,000 voters making the same specific demand. There has been no response from ECI, to date.

Citizens and civil society kept up the pressure on the INDIA Block emerged thereafter and succeeded, to some extent, in moving them. Leaders of 28 opposition parties meeting at Mumbai in December, 2023 resolved thus: “INDIA parties reiterate that there are many doubts on the integrity of the functioning of the EVMs. These have been raised by many experts and professionals as well…. Our suggestion is simple: Instead of the voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) slip falling in the box, it should be handed over to the voter who shall then place it in a separate ballot box after having verified his or her choice. 100% counting of VVPAT slips should then be done. This will restore full confidence of the people in free and fair elections.”[25]

The resolution was adopted unanimously and the task of conveying this to the ECI was given to the General Secretary, Communications of the INC. Instead of following this agreed upon path, the G-Sec kept writing to ECI seeking appointment which was never given![26]

The repeated, almost wilful sabotage of this resolution and not conveying it to the ECI and backing it up with mass action has cost INDIA Block dearly. This is the main reason why they lost out in the 2024 parliament election when people had actually given the mandate in their favour.

Soon after the 2024 Parliamentary elections, Vote for Democracy (VFD) published a report presenting data that suggested that in at least 79 Constituencies across the country “people’s mandate” had not been reflected in the results.[27] This was in July 2024. The Opposition almost entirely ignored this Report.[28] In fact, while BJP kept silent, it was the INC’s “Election Expert” Yoginder Yadav who not only ruthlessly attacked this Report but hailed the EVM! [29] A complete rebuttal of this authored by this writer was not published by the newspaper.

Despite all these sabotage from within on Constitution Day-2024 (November 26), the AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge called for a ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ like campaign to mark the return of ballot papers in elections. “We don’t want EVMs, we want ballot paper,” he said at the party’s Constitution Day event at Delhi’s Talkatora Stadium.[30] Rahul Gandhi, the former president AICC also spoke against EVM publicly on several occasions.

However, when, on February 2, 2025 the INC formed “Empowered Action Group of Leaders and Experts, or EAGLE, to keep a “bird’s eye view” of elections in the country and “monitor the conduct of free and fair elections by the Election Commission of India,” directly reporting to Rahul Gandhi, there was no mention of the problems in the EVS or the campaign announced by Mr Kharge. In a subsequent press conference Rahul Gandhi dodged a question on the campaign and told a media person that the party was seeking “judicial remedy”.

Thereafter, , Jairam Ramesh, General Secretary of the party, without any previous intervention, rushed to the apex court challenging the amendment of Rule 93(2)(a) of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, by the union law ministry on the recommendation of the ECI. This amendment –a response to advocates and citizens concerted efforts to access video and electronic data—was aimed at denying access to electronic materials such as CCTV footage, webcasting videos and recordings of candidates, citing ‘concerns over potential misuse’.[31] Just when the matter had built strong public opinion, this move within the courts is likely to see more obfuscation by the ECI –in denying information to citizens.

The lukewarm responses by the main opposition parties to this subversion of India’s entire electoral process, suggests a cynical abdication of the gritty battle to reclaim institutional autonomy and democracy. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) seems to be the only exception. Weeks ago, they have taken the offensive on the manipulation the EPIC numbers (for voters) that they have exposed. According to a TMC leader, “Since EPIC number is linked to voter details, a duplicate EPIC number will lead to denial of voting rights. The EC handbook clearly states that EPIC numbers are supposed to be unique. It is impossible for voters in two different assembly constituencies to have the same first three letters. Voters in different states have been found to have the same EPIC numbers.” And the party has dared the ECI to come clean on this.[32] Admitting their guilt but seeking shelter behind the ‘vast electoral voter data base’, the ECI has so far escaped a united Opposition’s wrath.[33]

Despite this exposure coming from West Bengal, a state that goes to the polls next year, the “technical expert” of the AICC, Praveen Chakravarty — like some of the other opposition leaders– appears to be distinguishing between the allegations of voter list manipulation and previous claims about EVM tampering. “It is very clearly electoral rolls,” Chakravarty said. “What else? I don’t know. But voter lists for sure.”[34] This stand deifies logic given evidence of huge shift in data parameters by the ECI (not releasing actual voter data, only percentages, not releasing evidence of post voting time, voter slips or video etc.). Surely such a gross manipulation of the electoral rolls is only one part of a weaponised IES in which EVMs form the epicentre?

It is critical and crucial that –before one more state election is “lost” despite being won –that the Opposition makes this clear subversion of the IES a top priority to reclaim democracy and every Indian’s constitutional right to exercise her or his franchise.

[The author is Coordinator, Citizens Commission on Elections. He is the Editor of the Book: “Electoral Democracy-An Inquiry in to the Fairness and Integrity of Elections in India.” (Paranjoy-2022)]

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are the author’s personal views, and do not necessarily represent the views of Sabrangindia.

[1] https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/interview/violent-religion-hinduism-golwalkar-hindu-fundamentalists-india/article69228890.ece

[2] https://thewire.in/books/golwalkar-termed-federalism-as-a-poisonous-see…

[3] https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/excji-supports-onoe-but-in-ph…

[4] https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/who-is-gyanesh-kumar-the-new-…

[5] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/will-detoxify-myself-go-to-hi…

[6] https://www.scobserver.in/reports/eci-appoinments-judgment-pronouncemen…

[7] https://prsindia.org/billtrack/prs-products/prs-legislative-brief-4256

[8] https://thewire.in/government/questions-surround-committee-that-certifi…

[9] Unpacking VVPAT Flaws & Vote Discrepancies: Prof. Harish Karnick Speaks – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21KufMCHsA4

[10] https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/what-sc-has-told-election-c…

[11]https://ceohimachal.nic.in/CommonControls/ViewCMSFile?qs=KI3gZ53zz1wW9H…

[12] The 50-page paper, titled Democratic Backsliding in the World’s Largest Democracy, presents evidence that indicates voter suppression to favour Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP): https://hmpa.hms.harvard.edu/sites/projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/pegrou…

[13] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/28/row-at-indias-premier-private-…

[14] https://ssrn.com/abstract=4512936; https://thewire.in/politics/ashoka-university-facultys-research-paper-on-bjp-manipulation-in-2019-election-triggers-row

[15] https://theprint.in/opinion/aadhaar-linkage-can-sink-indias-electoral-d…

[16] https://open.spotify.com/episode/5j2DsbneJ84iMiFlo8QtXZ?si=SiZHmNgwT_uE…

[17] https://theprint.in/judiciary/voters-should-be-given-prior-notice-befor…

[18] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/4/30/allegations-of-mass-voter-excl…

[19] https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/chorus-grows-for-high…

[20] https://www.thehindu.com/data/data-eighteenth-lok-sabha-has-lowest-shar…

[21] https://www.globalvillagespace.com/muslims-are-hissing-yavana-snakes-tr…

[22] Craig Baxter, The Jana Sangh: A Biography of an Indian Political Party (University of Pennsylvania Press, p.31)

[23] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._S._Golwalkar

[24] https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/11-opposition-parties-resolve…

[25] https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/evms-evm-india-alliance-meeeing-india-b… ses-resolution-seeks-100-counting-of-paper-trail-machine-slips-4705846

[26] https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/jairam-ramesh-seeks-cecs-time…

[27] https://votefordemocracy.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/NEW-Edited-E…

[28] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/report-claims-5-crore-vote-discrepancy-india-bloc-would-have-won-maximum-seats-in-lok-sabha-congress/articleshow/112059094.cms; https://m.thewire.in/article/government/election-commission-must-respon…

[29]https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/yogendra-yadav-writes….

[30] https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/we-dont-want-evms-kharge-call…

[31] https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/election-rules-tweaked-to-restri…

[32] https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/tmc-team-to-meet-cec-amid-row…

[33] https://www.business-standard.com/politics/election-commission-has-admi…

[34] https://scroll.in/article/1079942/voter-rolls-not-just-evms-how-opposit…