With losing political parties pointing accusing fingers at electronic voting machines (EVMs), the Election Commission of India has decided to take the bull by the horns. The EC has decided to throw open a challenge to naysayers to prove that the machines can be tampered. In 2009-10 the EC had offered EVMs for a demonstration to prove if they can be tampered. Now the EC is asking doubting Thomases to bring in an instrument to demonstrate how an EVM can be tampered. The EC has gone one step further by agreeing to open the EVMs used in the Punjab polls for the challenge. It is not surprising for losing parties to point fingers at EVMs. When AAP won a landslide in New Delhi it did not questione the machines or the EC. Now that it lost the election in Punjab it wants to desperately prove that it won. The EC has done the right thing by taking up the challenge thrown by political parties because the only way to prove that the EVMs are foolproof is by asking those making accusations to prove them. The onus is now on AAP and Kejriwal cannot run away from this challenge.
