As Congress compares Indian EVMs with Hezbollah pagers, EC explains the difference

The Election Commission of India (ECI) gave an elaborate response to Congress leader Rashid Alvi claims in which he cited Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “friendship” with Israel to allege that the electronic voting machines (EVMs) could be manipulated by the BJP government and the Election Commission like Hezbollah’s pagers in Lebanon which allegedly turned into exploding devices by Israel.

“Our EVMs are more robust than Hezbollah’s pagers and can’t be hacked like (Hezbollah) pagers used for blasts,” Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said, dismissing Congress’ accusations of EVM tampering in Haryana polls.  

‘Pagers are connected EVMs are not’ 

“EVMs cannot be hacked. Pagers are connected devices but EVMs are not,” CEC Kumar said, stating that EVMs are totally “safe and robust."  

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Addressing a press conference while announcing the poll dates for Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly elections on Tuesday, CEC Kumar highlighted that EVMs had three-layered security and the machines have single-use batteries.  

“This is a single-use battery… like a calculator, not like a mobile which will be charged everyday. One battery can be used for around five years,” the CEC said.  

He further said that in each level signatures of political party representatives were taken to ensure transparency.

Also Read: Maharashtra, Jharkhand election dates 2024: EC announces poll schedule for two states

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“When a machine is commissioned, the battery is put on that day, this is done five or six days before voting. .. even on the battery there are signatures of party representatives. We also do not know when we made this rule, but now it is useful to us,” the CEC said.  

“When the EVMs are sealed, they will be double locked, there will be a three-layer security, where CAPF must be there, and observers will be there too. On the day of polling the whole process will be repeated and it is also videographed,” the CEC explained further.

“This sort of system, with public disclosure, participation, please tell me where else is there such a robust system,” he said.

What is Congress’ EVM-pager charge on EC?

Ahead of the announcement of poll dates for Jharkhand and Maharashtra Assembly elections, Alvi on Tuesday demanded that voting should be conducted using ballot papers.  

He claimed that if EVMs would be used, the BJP government and the ECI “can do anything”.

“In Maharashtra, the opposition should put pressure to insist on voting by paper ballot and not EVMs. Otherwise, in Maharashtra, BJP government and EC can do anything. If Israel can kill people by use of pagers and walkie-talkies, then where does EVM stand?” Alvi told ANI.

“PM Modi has very good relations with Israel. Israel is an expert in such things,” the Congress leader further alleged.

Alvi went on to claim, “EVM’s big game can happen anywhere. Hence, the BJP plays this game before the elections."

Hezbollah pagers explosions

For the unversed, on September 17 and 18, at least 32 people, including two children, were killed and several others were seriously injured after communication devices - pagers and walkie-talkies, used by Iran-backed terrorist group, Hezbollah, exploded across Lebanon.

A report by Reuters quoted senior Lebanese security sources as claiming that Israel’s Mossad spy agency planted a small amount of explosives inside 5,000 Taiwan-made pagers ordered by Hezbollah months before the detonations in September.  

The sources quoted in the report further claimed that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 beepers made by Taiwan-based Gold Apollo, which were brought into the country earlier this year.

Hezbollah fighters have been using pagers as a low-tech means of communication in an attempt to evade Israeli location-tracking.  

The Iran-backed terrorist group had switched to pagers and walkie-talkies at the instance of its chief Hassan Nasrallah who was scared of mobile phones and suspected that devices belonging to members of the group were hacked by Israeli agencies.  

Nasrallah, who was killed in Israeli strikes last month, had also asked Hezbollah members to destroy their mobile phones to evade detection by Israeli agencies.