New Delhi [India], April 12 (ANI): Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala on Friday questioned the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Central government for not responding to US politician Tulsi Gabbard's remarks on the vulnerability of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

He also urged the Supreme Court to take suo moto cognizance of the issue.

Taking on X, Surjewala said that Gabbard, the US Director of National Intelligence, had publicly raised the issue of EVM hacking.

https://x.com/rssurjewala/status/1910718475724828963

He quoted Gabbard as having said that EVMs are 'vulnerable to exploitation to manipulate the results of the votes being cast.'

Raising a series of questions, Surjewala asked why the Chief Election Commissioner and the Election Commission's official handle were silent on the matter and accused the poll body of planting 'source-based stories' to counter Gabbard's statement.

Surjewala further questioned the silence of the Prime Minister, the NDA government, and the BJP. 'Why are PM, NDA Govt & BJP 'mum'?' he wrote.

'Shouldn't the ECI & Modi Govt reaching out to U.S Govt and Ms. Gabbard to collect all the details of hacking & other vulnerabilities of EVM's and testing our EVM's viz a viz these fallibilities in EVM's?' he asked.

Referring to Gabbard's recent felicitation in India on March 17, Surjewala said it was less than a month ago that she was honoured in the country.

'Is it fair and just to outrightly rubbish and reject the statement made by the Director of National Intelligence of the U.S., whom we felicitated?' he asked.

The Congress leader further asked, 'Is it fair and just to outrightly rubbish and reject the statement made by the Director of National Intelligence of the U.S., whom we felicitated on 17th March, less than a month ago?'

Surjewala also urged the Supreme Court of India to take suo moto notice of the matter and initiate a thorough investigation. 'Should the Supreme Court of India not take suo moto notice of the issue and conduct a thorough investigation, considering that free and fair elections and democracy are part of the Constitution's 'basic structure'?' he posted on X.

In response, ECI reportedly said that some countries use Electronic Voting Machines, which are a mix of multiple systems, machines, and processes, including the Internet and other private networks.

The sources further said that India uses electronic voting machines, which cannot be connected to any network or WIFI and work like simple and accurate calculators. The ECI sources said that these machines have been subject to the legal scrutiny of the Supreme Court of India and are invariably checked by various political parties at various stages.

This includes conducting mock polls before the actual election polling starts. The sources added that more than 5 Crore VVPAT slips have been verified and matched while counting in front of Political parties.

Tulsi Gabbard, speaking to the media on Thursday, said the US Cabinet had found evidence showing that electronic voting systems had been vulnerable to hackers for a long time and could be exploited to manipulate election results. She said the findings support a shift to paper ballots in the US to ensure voter trust in the electoral process.

She further said that the findings mandate the use of paper ballots across the country so that voters can have faith in the integrity of the US elections. (ANI)