New Delhi, Apr 11 (PTI) After US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s statement on EVM hacking, senior Congress leader Randeep Surjewala on Friday questioned the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP-led Centre and the Election Commission (EC), and demanded that the Supreme Court take suo-moto notice of the issue and announce a probe.

In a post on X, the Congress general secretary said Gabbard has publicly raised the “issues of hacking” of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and their vulnerabilities.

“In fact, she further said that EVMs are … vulnerable to exploitation to manipulate the results of the votes being cast. The question is: Why are CEC and Election Commission of India ‘silent’? Why is ECI planting ‘source based stories’ to negate what Ms Tulsi Gabbard said? Why are the PM, NDA government and BJP ‘mum’?” he asked.

Surjewala said the EC and the Centre should reach out to the US government and Gabbard to collect all the details of hacking and other vulnerabilities of EVMs.

“Is it fair and just to outrightly rubbish and reject the statement made by the Director of National Intelligence of the US, whom we felicitated on 17th March i.e less than a month ago? “Should the Supreme Court of India not take suo moto notice of the issue and conduct a thorough investigation, considering that free and fair elections and democracy are part of the ‘basic structure’ of the Constitution?” the Congress leader asked.

Sources in the EC rejected suggestions on Friday that the EVMs used in India are vulnerable to hacking, asserting that the machines work like simple calculators, which are not connected to the internet or infrared.

Referring to Gabbard’s reported remarks that her office has obtained evidence of vulnerabilities to the hacking of electronic voting systems for manipulating votes, the sources said some countries use “electronic voting systems”, which are a mix of multiple systems, machines and processes, including various private networks. PTI SKC RC