The allegation of Syed Shuja, the man who claimed to be an American cyber expert, was that the BJP came to power after rigging the elections by hacking the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). This allegation can be likened to some mystic story.

He claimed that even a killing spree ensued this hacking. BJP leader who knew about hacking was killed, NIA officer Thansil Ahammed who probed the death also got killed when he was about to submit the FIR. Journalist Gouri Lankesh, who agreed to report the rigging also got killed!

Moreover, Shuja came out with the claim that he and his team were fired at and his colleagues got killed after he found out the rigging during the election

Besides all this, he added the spicy masala to his story that Reliance Company also has role in the rigging. The nature of such overwhelming stories is that in its first part, it gains the characteristic of a riddle.

Like a riddle, Shuja’s story has thrown up certain questions. If the BJP is behind the rigging, why should they kill Munde, who was a union minister and their own man who came to know about it?

Did only Gouri Lankesh had the guts to report the rigging in the country and why no other journalists?
How could BJP successfully sabotage the election extensively, sitting in the Opposition? Why didn’t Shuja open his mouth all these years if his colleagues had been killed?

The above four questions are the ones that mock at the sense of logic.

To know the climax of the story, two facts have to be verified. 1) Is there any mysterious attempt by foreign powers to sabotage the EVM arrangement with business motive? 2) Is it possible to tamper with the EVMs currently in use in the country?

This is the time foreign pharmaceutical companies spread fake stories about new epidemics and sell out preventive medicines extensively across the world.

The global business tycoons will do any heinous thing to ensure that their business keep flourishing. The regressive demand for going back to old paper ballot system may be part of some conspiracy. Slowly, the demand for paper ballots will also fizzle out. The new demand that will be raised may be for importing high quality EVMs. It should also be probed whether the conspiracy is for nipping in the bud India’s chances for exporting indigenous voting machines.

EVMs are used now in 20 counties, not only in developed countries but also in developing countries like Brazil. In no other country, there is clamour for returning to ballot paper. If the BJP had been able to tamper with the EVMs, why then was it not able to win the assembly elections held in November? This is another question asked.

Now, it becomes necessary to find out whether Shuja’s ill-motive was to set the scene for the import of EVMs by making false and serious allegations against Indian voting arrangement.

The Election Commission has already declared that it will take legal action against Shuaja. That is not enough. They should form a committee of Indian cyber experts and prove the credibility of EVMs. Until then, those with vested interests will keep creating the fog of doubts over the EVMs here.

Indian scientists were the ones who were able to make super computers on their own in 1991. For them, what is the difficulty to find out whether voting machines had been hacked?