Politics

The Congress on Saturday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to heed to his friend, US President Donald Trump, for using paper ballots and not machines for voting to address the concerns of the entire country on the integrity of India's electoral process.

Congress general secretary, organisation, K C Venugopal wondered why the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is feigning ignorance to what the entire world is saying and why is its government running away from transparency. "I'm sure his best friend will also be appalled at the abnormal increase of lakhs of voters in Maharashtra, or the surgical deletions of opposition votes," Venugopal said in a post on X, citing Trump's remarks at a governors' meeting.

At the meeting, Trump was heard urging governors to switch to paper ballots and same-day voting, claiming that machines are expensive.

"It is tragic that the BJP is feigning ignorance to what is evident to the entire world, that the electoral system can be severely manipulated and their attitude of running away from transparency is only confirming our suspicions about their malpractices," Venugopal said. The Congress has been demanding a return to the paper-ballot system for voting for quite some time, alleging that the results of electronic voting machines are doubtful, even as the Election Commission (EC) has been saying that no one has been able to prove anything wrong with EVMs.

The government has repeatedly told Parliament that there is no going back to the paper-ballot system.

The Punjab government has reportedly admitted that the Department of Administrative Reforms, assigned to Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, never existed — nearly 20 months after its allocation.

A gazette notification issued today confirmed the department's non-existence and stated that Dhaliwal will now hold charge only of the NRI Affairs Ministry. “In partial modification of the previous Punjab government notification regarding the allocation of portfolios, among ministers, the department of administrative reforms earlier allotted to Dhaliwal is not in existence as of date,” the notification said.

Dhaliwal, who previously held the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare portfolio, was relieved of it in a May 2023 Cabinet reshuffle. He retained NRI Affairs and was also assigned Administrative Reforms. In another reshuffle in September 2024, both departments remained under his charge — until the recent revelation that one of them did not exist.