A video of Nava Telangana, a Telugu daily chief editor S Veeraiah about electronic voting machines (EVMs) discrepancies. Users have linked this video to the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.
What does he say?: Speaking in Telugu, Veeraiah said, "Of all the matters that raise doubts, the most important one is: 20 lakh EVM machines are not seen. 60 lakh machines were readied for the whole country. Companies were given contracts, money was paid."
He added, "Election Commission has the record of about 40 lakh EVMs. Where are the other 20 lakh machines? This is the question."
Further in the 2 minute clip, he said, "When RTI activists asked the Election Commission to give information about 20 lakh EVMS which are missing. They said we only know about 40 lakh EVMS, we don't know anything about where the other 20 lakh machines are. Nobody gave us any handover, they said in their response."
He asked, "Then what happened to the 20 lakh EVMs? You got 60 lakh machines ready, and gave 40 lakh of them to the EC. What happened to the rest?"
Lastly, he added, "Now everyone could doubt that after polling when the EVMs are kept safely in strongrooms, has someone exchanged them overnight? Have they replaced the EVMs for polling with machines that have the votes they want? All these doubts are valid. Still, Modi or any other EC official does not respond. Is this a democracy? It's a very serious matter to consider."
How did we find out?: First, we cropped the video of the speaker's part and ran a Google reverse image search on it.
We came across the same video on YouTube on S Veeraiah Analysis channel. It was uploaded on 12 July 2019.
It was uploaded with the title, "Where are the 20 lakh EVMs that were missing in the Parliament elections? S Veeraiah Analysis" (translated from Telugu to English)
We tried identifying the portion in the viral video in its longer version by translating the journalist's analysis.
Between 0:55 to 2:50 minutes is the portion in the viral video. He explains a certain controversy around EVMs. The journalist stated that 60 lakh EVMs were prepared for the elections and only 40 lakh machines were used. He asked where were the remaining 20 lakh machines.
The same bits are mentioned in the viral video.
Conclusion: An old video from 2019 of a Telugu journalist's analysis of EVMs is being falsely linked to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
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