EVMs passed every test from SC to people's court, says President Droupadi Murmu

Disquiet in the opposition camp over the EVM issue continued to reverberate through the joint session of Parliament on Thursday as President Droupadi Murmu proclaimed that EVMs passed rigorous scrutiny at the Supreme Court and the court of people during past decades.

PM Murmu, in her speech, said that across the globe, India has trusteeship of the sobriquet 'Mother of Democracy.' She says, "Today, from every part of the world, we are called 'Mother of Democracy'. The people of India have always shown full faith in democracy and electoral institutions."

President Murmu said that it is necessary to preserve and nourish this trust, adding a strong democracy is impossible without this trust. Undermining faith in democratic institutions and the electoral process was equivalent to playing with the very foundation on which the nation stood, she said.

Strong condemnation of any such attempt that might have been made to discredit the democratic system in India could be read between the lines of President Murmu's assertion. She categorically termed it an attempt to discredit the democratic system in India, stating that at least as a society, there should be collective condemnation of such an attempt. She mentioned how ballot papers used to be stolen and robbed during earlier times.

It is like cutting the very branch on which all of us are sitting, hurting the faith of people in democratic institutions and the electoral process," said the President.

We should collectively denounce every attempt aimed at undermining the credibility of our democracy, she added.

We all remember those times when ballot papers were snatched and looted, she said.

Emphasising the integrity of the electoral process, President Murmu categorically stated that the decision for adopting EVMs has stood many a test to their reliability. She referred to the judgment of the Supreme Court which rejected the plea for reverting to conventional paper-ballot system.