Mumbai: Calling opposition to Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) a ‘treason,’ Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday alleged that the opposition parties are trying to form a public opinion against the voting machines and the Election Commission.
“The Supreme Court has defined treason as forming a public opinion against the institutions created by the Constitution. Claiming that those institutions are wrong is considered treason. The opposition parties are doing it every day. This is absolutely wrong,” Fadnavis said while speaking in the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha.
Replying to a debate in the Vidhan Sabha on the motion of thanks to the Governor for his joint address to both Houses of the State Legislature, the CM took potshots at the opposition parties. He said, “A new system has become common nowadays. If the (election) result is in our favour, it is the people’s mandate and victory of democracy. But if the result goes against us, blame it on the EVMs and the Election Commission and call it a murder of democracy. This is a lack of faith shown in the constitution and the institutions created by the constitution. It is an insult of the people and the Constitution which gave them the right to vote,”
Fadnavis asked the Opposition to introspect and accept the people’s mandate it got in the Vidhan Sabha elections instead of blaming the EVMs. “EVM means ‘every vote for Maharashtra’ which we got,” he said.
Trials for EVMs began on August 6, 1980 and the devices were first used in 1992. These machines were used in all Lok Sabha constituencies in 2004, he said. In the 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress won, the CM said. Later, the ECI asked political parties to show how EVMs can be tampered with. But nobody went ahead, he said.
“In the assembly elections, we destroyed your fake narrative spread during the Lok Sabha polls. We introspected after the Lok Sabha poll losses and worked hard to counter your fake narrative. We did not blame EVMs, but worked hard for the assembly polls,” CM said.
