This is in response to Ashley Noronha's letter in the Sunday Inbox dated 8 November. He chooses to believe that the EVMs were tampered. Even if the argument of EVMs being tamper-prone is accepted for sake of argument, why were they not tampered during the elections when opposition won good seats, like in the case of Goa Assembly polls of 2017?
The process of preparing EVMs for elections is transparent and every step from first level checking (FLC) to counting and subsequent storage in warehouse is done as per protocol and in presence of the representatives of political parties. Further, the rumour of EVMs going 'missing' was baseless and the Election Commission has already clarified on it.
As regards his claim of the Election Commission being a dummy body, it is ultimately the persons who lead the institution that matters. The Constitution has given ECI its independence and perhaps a cursory reading of our Constitution will help Mr Noronha understand it.
The Commission is empowered by law but a legend like TN Sheshan gave it teeth. I agree that the ECI needs to be more active, especially when promises like Corona caccine are made in elections. The US, Japan and European nations take hours and at times, days to finish counting and our counting finishes in hours. Plus, we should not forget that we are a mammoth democracy with population of over 130 crore persons, and that the EVMs are the best option as compared to ballot boxes.
SADANAND M RAIKAR, Colva
