The plight of democracy in India can be gauged from the disconcerting fact that the Election Commission of India doesn’t even give time to the Opposition parties to discuss the issue of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), leave apart addressing their concerns.

The Congress on Tuesday released a letter written by the party’s communications chief Jairam Ramesh to the chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar on December 30, 2023, which explained how the Opposition was denied an audience and asked to read the standard FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) available on the website. Sanctity of the voting process is the core element of democracy and the Election Commission has treated the concerns of the majority of parties in this casual manner.

Ramesh wrote in his letter: “On August 9, 2023 a memorandum had been submitted to the ECI on EVM-related concerns of INDIA parties. This was supported with several requests — on August 9, 2023, August 10, August 16, August 18 and August 23 — for a meeting of an INDIA parties’ delegation with the ECI.”

The letter added: “On August 23, 2023 ECI issued a clarification to our counsel on the memorandum. This clarification was generic in nature and (i) directed us to refer to the standard FAQs on EVMs available on the ECI website; (ii) explained the legal backing for EVMs through Section 61A of the Representation of Peoples’ Act, 1951; (iii) summarised the judgments of the High Courts and the Supreme Court on the issue of EVMs; (iv) provided a chart of Assembly and parliamentary election results since 2004 to show that the political party winning the maximum number of seats changed several times.”

However, Ramesh asserted, that there was no meeting or hearing provided to the INDIA parties’ delegation despite repeated requests.

“On October 2, 2023 a follow-up representation was sent by us through counsel. The representation raised specific concerns which remained unaddressed in the ECI’s clarification of August 23, 2023. No response was received on the same. On December 20, 2023 we again requested for an appointment with the ECI to ‘discuss and provide suggestions on the use of VVPATs’ based on a resolution passed at a meeting of leaders of INDIA parties held the previous day. We have been trying to meet with the ECI to hand over a copy of this resolution and have a discussion but have not been successful so far in doing so.”

The Congress leader reiterated on behalf of INDIA parties: “I once again make a request for an opportunity for a 3-4 member team of INDIA party leaders to meet with you and your colleagues and take a few minutes to put forward our point of view on VVPATs. Surely, this is a perfectly reasonable and legitimate request.”