Fact Check: Viral video of Modi advocating ballot paper-based voting system in edited
After Maharashtra elections, the debate about reliability of the electronic voting machines has intensified in the count
Ballot paper voting system
After Maharashtra elections, the debate about reliability of the electronic voting machines has intensified in the country. The Maha Vikas Aghadi candidates who faced defeat in the recent Maharashtra assembly elections decided to seek verification of the EVM-Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) unit in their segments. Leaders like Sharad Pawar commented on the EVMs. Tesla CEO Elon Musk also commented that EVM machines should be eliminated as he believes they can carry a risk of getting hacked by humans or artificial intelligence, fueling the controversy. The Mahayuti coalition, comprising Shiv Sena BJP, NCP, won 230 seats and Maha Vikas Aghadi won only 46 seats in the 288-member house.
Amidst all this, a video of Indian Prime Minister and BJP chief Narendra Modi is in circulation with the claim that it is an old video of PM Modi, where he can be seen supporting ballot-based voting system. The video is from a rally where he is seen addressing a gathering.
In the video, we can hear him saying “Our country is poor, people don’t understand anything. In any country in the whole world, when elections happen, they use ballot paper. They read the names and put the stamp on the person to be elected”. This video is in circulation with different captions like “This is gold Found this old video of Modi . Before 2014 Modi was saying that elections should be conducted with ballot papers not with EVM . Then why is the BJP defending EVM now? Spread this video everywhere .”
While others shared the video with caption “Elections should be conducted using ballot papers rather than EVMs. Even the people of America use ballot paper, not EVMs. —Narendra Modi before 2014”
Fact Check:
The claim is Misleading. The video is an edited one, altered to make a Misleading claim.
When we extracted keyframes from the video and searched using Google reverse image search, we found that the video is very old, from the year 2016. Longer version of the video was published by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s YouTube channel, on December 3, 2016. Modi is seen addressing a large crowd in the Parivartan Rally. The viral part can be seen from 37.20 minutes. The Indian PM can be heard talking about the benefits of digitization that happened in the country. He starts with talking about people standing in long queues to withdraw money from the ATM machines. He states that all over the world people vote by using ballot paper where they have to search for the name and then stamp on the name necessary. He ends the statement stating the fact that in India we vote by pressing a button.
We also found the same YouTube video published by the channel Narendra Modi. It was also published on December 3, 2016.
The highlights of the PM’s speech was published on news website NDTV, where we can see his statements made during the rally. He stated “The people who say Indians are illiterate, Indians don't know anything. But around the world, people use paper ballots. India votes through a button. My country accepts change. The poor of my country accept it.”
Therefore, we can see that PM Modi was not supporting a ballot paper-based voting system in the viral video, but on the contrary, he is stating that while the whole world is still using ballot papers, India is using EVM machines which are much more advanced and authentic. The original video has been edited to make a misleading claim. The claim is Misleading.