Electronic voting machines not fool-proof: Swamy

BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy ridiculed the use of electronic voting machines during elections in India and said they could be tampered with with much ease.

According to Swamy, several leading democratic countries continue to use ballot papers and even the United States which invented the electronic voting machine is gradually moving back to the use of ballot paper in a phased manner.

Swamy added he had filed a Public Interest Litigation in Supreme Court questioning the use of electronic voting machines and that Supreme Court had directed the Chief Election Commissioner to look into the plea.

Swamy said he had also suggested some modifications to the electronic voting machines to ensure that the machines are made error-freefool proof, as sought by the apex court.

However, the Chief Election Commissioner has not implemented the suggestions yet, he said.

IT should be abolished

Batting in favour of abolishing income tax, Swamy said the party's vision document which is being prepared would emphasis this issue.

Swamy said abolition of income tax would not create a financial burden on the exchequer. Instead, it would help accelerate economic growth, he claimed.

He expressed confidence that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would abolish income tax if it came to power. He said the total income tax collection in the country was Rs. 2 lakh crore. The deficit from abolishing income tax could be compensated by other means. For instance, if the 2G spectrum was auctioned it would generate Rs. 2 lakh crore, he suggested. Similarly, the government could earn money by auctioning 3G and 4G spectrum, he said.

Swamy added that the country could run without collecting any tax for a minimum of five years, if the Rs. 120 lakh crore which had been stashed into foreign banks was brought back.

Stating that in India, most of the rich evade tax and the poor are not taxable, Swamy pointed out that it was the middle class who paid taxes. If the middle class people were provided more scope for savings, they would reinvest the saved money in any other economic activity and thus accelerate the growth rate, he suggested.

But under the present system, corruption and black money were growing by the day. The black money could not be invested in economic activities; hence it was being used to buy luxuries. That was the reason luxury goods industries were flourishing in India, he said.

India needs to achieve a minimum 12 per cent growth rate to emerge as a developed country. It would not be a difficult task if the country adopts proper economic planning based on the principles of democracy and market economy, he said.