National News

TNM Publishes Misleading Article About EVMs & VVPATs; Editor Dhanya Justifies Article After Supreme Court Busts Rhetoric

April 19, 2024
The Commune

On 18 April 2024, the Election Commission of India refuted allegations that a BJP candidate received additional votes during mock polls in Kerala’s Kasargod district, deeming the claim “totally false.” This assertion was made before a Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta during a hearing on a plea by the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the petitioner, referenced a news report suggesting that four Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) devices recorded an extra vote for the BJP during the mock poll. Responding to this, the court instructed senior counsel Maninder Singh to investigate the matter further.

During subsequent proceedings, the Deputy Election Commissioner provided insights into the voting process using EVMs and VVPATs. Later in the day, an Election Commission official informed the bench that the reported incident had been thoroughly examined and found to be baseless.

Earlier, on April 16, 2024, the Supreme Court had expressed concerns about the potential drawbacks of resorting to ballot papers or a complete count of VVPATs during elections, evoking memories of past electoral practices. Despite reservations, the court emphasized a reluctance to revisit older systems, citing the known limitations associated with ballot papers.

In what seems like last-ditch efforts by the leftists and Congress supporters, lies about the EVM (electronic voting machines) are being spread all over again. The News Minute, like a true foot soldier of this faction, has indulged in spreading false propaganda in the name of news reports once again. 

The headlines as usual portray a different image when compared to the article. In a recent report, they peddled half-truths about an incident that occurred in Telangana involving a Catholic school where the principal prevented the entry of students who were observing Hanuman Deeksha for their exams. Instead of explaining the exact cause for the action by the enraged Hindus, TNM peddled only one side of the story blaming the “Hindu mob” for vandalising the school premises. 

In this case, the headline of the report reads, “VVPATs print extra slip with BJP lotus symbol during mock polls in Kerala“, however, inside the article, the truth is mentioned, “…when the machines were initialised, three out of 10 VVPAT machines printed out ‘test prints’. All these three prints had the BJP’s lotus symbol on it and the words ‘not to be counted’ were written on top in small letters.”

This story has been picked up by influencers and other news media. It is common for people to not read beyond headlines and the first paragraph of the article. In this manner, TNM has tried to play safe while also peddling half-truths, as always.

Thankfully, in platforms like X, there are Community Notes which allow netizens to label a post made on the platform as fake. 

When confronted with the truth, Dhanya Rajendran, the Editor-in-Chief of the news portal, wrote, “For all those jumping around saying fake news: The returning officer report says “In the VVPAT machines with the serial numbers VVTED41294, VVTEF82139, VVTEJ14797, VVTED49299, after switching on the CU at the commissioning table, at the time of self checking’ in addition to normalslips printed, one more slip was coming with the following information. NOT TO BE COUNTED ‘STANDARDILATION DONE, VVPAT SERIAL NO Along with this first candidate’s symbol also printed. This slip is a little longer than the normal mock poll slip. HOW THE ISSUE GOT SOLVED? The VVPAT with serial number VVTED 49299 was taken to mock poll for casting 1000 votes. The mock pollslips were tallied with the machine count. Political parties/candidate agents convinced and signed the Annexure 22 certificate.”

Again, she tried to wash her hands off the fake news peddling by stating that the article mentions VVPATs and not EVMs.

“Just adding here. ECI told the court no extra vote was recorded. That is for the ECI to say. Our story merely was that VVPATS printed extra slip, which was true. There is no complaint that extra vote was recorded on EVM. The problem is on conflating EVM and VVPAT here“

TNM’s news story did not simply state that VVPATs produced extra slips. It specifically claimed that the additional slips featured the lotus symbol, associated with the BJP. However, this turned out to be false. Dhanya Rajendran very smoothly tried to do her part by altering the narrative and distorting the facts, while also referring back to her original inaccurate post, in an attempt to appear genuine.

What Dhanya and her minions do not mention is that in the case of NOTA, the EVM automatically prints the first symbol (or letter) with a note that the vote shouldn’t be counted. 

Such peddling of propaganda against EVMs by portals such as The News Minute only seems to show their support for the Congress’s agenda of bringing back the archaic ballot system which will allow booth capturing and polling illegal votes. 

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