Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Saturday asserted that Electronic Vending Machines (EVMs) in India are completely “safe” and are ”tamper-proof”.

Kumar is on a three-day visit to Jharkhand and his remarks come amidst US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s claims of finding evidence of massive vulnerabilities in EVM machines.

Addressing media persons in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh district, the CEC said the EVMs in the country cannot be connected to Bluetooth infrared, and so it is not possible to tamper with them.

He said wherever democracy was present, electoral rolls and election processes were different, and in some countries, electronic voting systems were used.

“In India, EVMs made by PSUs were used, and on these machines, legal scrutiny had been done, and the EVMs of India cannot be connected to Bluetooth infrared, and so it is not possible to tamper with them,” Kumar said.

The CEC said India’s EVMs are tamper-proof, five crore VVPAT slips have been counted, and no discrepancies have been reported.

“We want to assure the voters of India that the EVMs are completely safe,” he said.

Earlier on Friday, Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala 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 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.

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 motu 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.

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