The ruling Bhartiya Janta Party on Tuesday alleged that the so-called ‘Hackathon’ that was held in London organized, sponsored and scripted by the Indian National Congress. A “hackathon” made into headlines following a so-called cyber expert made a series of unsubstantiated claims, including that EVMs or Electronic Voting Machines were manipulated during the 2014 national election and senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde known about this, He added he was “murdered” before he could expose it.
Senior BJP Leader and Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad while raising doubts over the presence of Kapil Sibal in the London event said, “This was a Congress-sponsored London press conference. Is the Congress-sponsored event designed to defame the popular mandate of 2014? Is it meant to insult the nation’s voters”?
Prasad on the allegations about Gopinath Munde’s death said, ” He (Gopinath Munde) is not here to respond. He died in an accident in Delhi. Sudhir Gupta, an AIIMS doctor, has said he did the post-mortem and Mr Munde died of a neck injury. How can they call it murder?”
Syed Shuja, a self-proclaimed cyber expert based in the US had called the hackathon in London on Monday to demonstrate EVM hacking but, instead, he made sensational allegations without offering any proof. Kapil Sibal’s presence at such an event raised many questions and has deeply embarrassed the Congress, which has disassociated itself from it.
Congress Leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi had on Monday said, “The Congress had nothing to do with the hackathon and it “does not know any of these principal actors and has no role to play”.
We neither support nor reject the allegations. But such serious allegations should be investigated by an independent agency,” said Singhvi. He also said Sibal went to London in his personal capacity. “If there is a concern about EVMs, it is not a crime.”
In another development, Election Commission of India (ECI) has written to Delhi Police requesting it to lodge an FIR & investigate properly the statement made by Syed Shuja yesterday at an event in London claiming to demonstrate EVMs used by ECI can be tampered with.
“Through media reports, it has come to the notice of the commission that allegedly one Mr Syed Shuja claimed (at the event in London) that he was part of the EVM design team & he can hack the EVMs used in elections in India” informed Poll Panel.
Election Commission of India to Delhi Police: Through media reports, it has come to the notice of the commission that allegedly one Mr Syed Shuja claimed (at the event in London) that he was part of the EVM design team & he can hack the EVMs used in elections in India https://t.co/5cLDuRC60N
— ANI (@ANI) January 22, 2019
In the Meanwhile Congress Kapil Sibal on Tuesday brief Media on the issue and said, “Indian Journalists Association London President Ashish Ray told me he has sent invitations to all political parties including BJP & also Election Commission”
Sibal added, “He (Ashish Ray) sent me a personal e-mail also. I told him that I will be in London for some personal work & he insisted that I should come as they are going to make an important revelation. So I went”.
Kapil Sibal, Congress: He (Ashish Ray) sent me a personal e-mail also. I told him that I will be in London for some personal work & he insisted that I should come as they are going to make an important revelation. So I went https://t.co/P3doD1og4S
— ANI (@ANI) January 22, 2019
While attempting damage control, the Congress continued to ask the Election Commission to restore confidence in the vote machines.