EVM Scam: Were the EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) used in 2014 elections hackable?

The hacker’s press conference in London, about 6700 kilometers away from Delhi, has brought a new earthquake in the country’s politics. When Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad termed the hacker’s press conference as a Congress-sponsored circus, Congress has demanded a probe into Hacker’s claims. Meanwhile, ECIL (Electronic Corporation of India Limited) company ECIL has said that no person named Syed Shuja was once a part of the EVM designing team. The college also rejected Shuja’s claim saying that no student of this name read in their college. Here, the Election Commission has lodged a complaint against the organizers of the Hackathon in Delhi Police.

Who is this Hacker?

Syed Shuja of Indian origin tells himself a cyber-expert. Right now he is living in America. Sayed Shuja, who describes himself as part of the EVM designing team, claims EVM can be hacked. Hacking won the BJP in 2014. Shuja also claimed that an attempt was made to hack EVMs in the recent Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh elections, but they intercepted it. Delving deeper into this EVM Scam, the following claims are made:

• EVM can be hacked with graphite-based transmitters.
• Only Bluetooth and WiFi EVMs can be hacked.
• It is bypassing the EVM chipset for hacking.
• EVM used the graphite-based transmitter in the election in -2014.
• The EVM was manipulated in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
• EVMs have been tampered with in UP, Gujarat and Maharashtra elections too.

Hacker also claimed that the former BJP leader Gopinath Munde was aware of the hacking in the EVM. That is why he was murdered. Indeed, the press conference in London was organized by the Indian Journalists Association, in which senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Kapil Sibal were also present.

The Election Commission has kept its side, but it is not possible that the controversy sprung up on EVMs in the election year will end. Shuja has not presented any evidence right now. Now to see that the London press conference from the US was just air-driven or there was no doubt in it.

What BJP Says on these claims of using hackable EMV?

BJP has directly told hackathon a Congress-sponsored event. The presence of Congress leader Kapil Sibal in London’s Hackathon gave another opportunity for the Congress to attack. However, BJP is trying to make it a Congress-sponsored hacking horror show.

EVM-making company ECIL refused that Shuja never been in the designing team. Referring to his record, the company said that no person in this name has ever been a part of the designing team. Significantly, there are about two thousand employees in ECIL. 80% engineers are working on EVM only. There was no employee of this name in the ECIL which was later shifted to the US. Only a detailed investigation will report the truthfulness of the claim.

Image Credit & Courtesy: All India Word, Hindustan Times.