As India preparing for Lok Sabha elections 2019, again there is a question leaping up about hackig of electronic voting machines (EVMs) possible or not..???

Before few days, a so-called cyber expert, who says he is based in the United States, has claimed to have proof that EVMs can be hacked. And, he held a grand "expose" in London, an "expose" that really wasn't. Now, EVMs have always been the bone of contention between winning and losing side. There are about 120 countries that practice democracy. Of these, only about 25 have experimented with or used electronic voting machines to elect their governments. So, the EVM is obviously not the dominant choice globally for recording votes in elections. Even the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has questioned the credibility of these machines when it was in Opposition.

US CYBER EXPERT GIVES  NOTHING

As reported earlier, a US-based man who said he had been involved in designing the EVMs that India uses. And if you thought Aam Aadmi Party's live hacking was dramatic, you had to see this one.

The unnamed "cyber expert", only to be later identified as Syed Shuja held a live video conference in London and like any other politician in the Opposition said the same thing -- the EVMs can be tampered with. His made two claims -- EVMs were rigged during 2014 Lok Sabha elections and BJP leader Gopinath Munde knew about his party's plan and thus was "murdered" by his own men.

He also claimed that he had to flee India for he feared for his safety. Well, that's it. There was no demonstration, no proof and like every other time, not any explanation.

LK ADVANI QUESTIONS ON EVMs

In 2009, senior BJP leader LK Advani, who was the Leader of Opposition at that time, had demanded the reintroduction of ballot papers for the assembly elections in Maharashtra and three other states. That was the first time a mainstream political party had questioned EVMs. "We should revert to ballot papers unless the Election Commission is able to ensure that EVMs are foolproof and every possibility of their malfunctioning is taken care of," Advani had told on a national report.

Advani's demand had come after former Delhi Chief Secretary Omash Saigal had alleged that it was possible to tamper with EVMs. The ruling Congress, however, at that time had dismissed Advani's remark terming it an "astonishing" statement of a losing party which was in search of wrong answers for its loss.

ARVIND KEJRIWAL MAKES IT PERSONAL

Soon after the BJP's clean sweep in Uttar Pradesh, the Opposition joined hands to blame the BJP for misusing the EVMs for its benefit. Aam Aadmi Party chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also marched into the controversy blaming EVM tampering for AAP's loss in Punjab and Goa. In Punjab, the AAP got 20 seats in the 117-member assembly. Kejriwal's big plan of making the AAP a national party also took a hit in Goa where it failed to open its account.

Kejriwal took the battle to the next level by accusing the Election Commission of working for the BJP. "Even the developed countries have given up on EVMs. Should we not rethink? Even the BJP including Advaniji had said EVMs can be tampered with," Kejriwal said. A few days later during a dramatic session, one of the AAP MLAs, Saurabh Bhardwaj demonstrated in Delhi assembly how EVMs can be tampered with. Kejriwal claimed that the voting machine could be hacked in just 90 seconds.

FORENSIC LAB TEST FOR EVMs

Throughout these years, the Election Commission has denied all the claims of EVM tamperings and in 2017, it got a scientific proof to back up its claim. In May, the Bombay High Court had ordered an examination of EVMs from the Parvati constituency in Pune. The order was issued to rule out tampering during elections to Maharashtra legislative assembly in 2014. One control unit, one ballot unit and two batteries were sent to the lab. An EVM comprises a control unit and a ballot unit.

As per the report received from the lab, the machine is a stand-alone, non-networked, one-time programmable unit, which is neither computer controlled externally nor could be connected internally or to any network. "Hence, it is opined that no evidence of tampering, altering or any other manipulation could be detected," the report said.

The report was made public after being submitted to the high court. The Election Commission had also thrown open EVM hackathon challenge to prove that the machines are incorruptible. But no political party showed interest.

Let us see what is happening in 2019 Lok-Sabha Election …