“The Smokescreen” Report Alleges Systematic Erosion of Indian Democracy and Large-Scale EVM Manipulation

“The Smokescreen” Report Alleges Systematic Erosion of Indian Democracy and Large-Scale EVM Manipulation

The report is critical of the domestic opposition, particularly the Indian National Congress and Rahul Gandhi, describing their response to alleged manipulation as episodic, rhetorical, and strategically ineffective.

By Rakesh Raman
New Delhi | February 6, 2026

The “Smokescreen” political research report argues that India’s electoral democracy has been systematically hollowed out and replaced with a “managed illusion” of democratic continuity. The report contends that while elections are held regularly, the process itself is structurally compromised and no longer free, transparent, or verifiable in any meaningful sense.

According to the study, the repeated electoral victories of the ruling regime cannot be explained by leadership appeal or welfare delivery alone; instead, the primary engine of these outcomes is alleged to be large-scale manipulation of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) combined with deep institutional capture.

The report rejects the claim that EVMs are secure simply because they are not connected to the internet, noting that standalone systems remain vulnerable to malicious firmware, pre-programmed code, and covert alterations during storage or transport. It asserts that only centralized, programmable vote-count manipulation can plausibly explain consistent and targeted electoral outcomes across a nation of hundreds of millions of voters.

Furthermore, the report alleges that the Election Commission of India (ECI) has become an extension of the ruling regime, while the judiciary is viewed as largely incapacitated and unable to provide effective domestic legal remedies for election-related grievances.

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The term “smokescreen” refers to a layered strategy of narrative management designed to distract the public and international observers from the mechanics of election theft. This strategy includes timed welfare announcements, hyper-nationalist rhetoric, communal polarization, and military escalations with Pakistan. Traditional media and Bollywood cinema are cited as key instruments in this “manufacturing of consent,” using nationalist and militaristic storylines to reinforce fear and divert attention from domestic democratic decay.

International perspectives are used in the report to challenge the idea that skepticism of electronic voting is a fringe or anti-national view. The report cites public warnings by global figures such as Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump regarding the risks of electronic voting systems. It also highlights the example of Argentina, which hand-counted millions of paper ballots rapidly, to rebut arguments that paper-based elections are impractical for large democracies.

The report is critical of the domestic opposition, particularly the Indian National Congress and Rahul Gandhi, describing their response to alleged manipulation as episodic, rhetorical, and strategically ineffective. It argues that opposition participation in EVM-based elections without secured transparency merely legitimizes a predetermined process. Additionally, the report claims that selective opposition victories in politically non-critical states are allowed to sustain the façade of democratic competition.

Among various demographics, the report identifies Gen Z as the only group that meaningfully unsettles the regime’s long-term control strategy. Ultimately, the study concludes that India is transitioning from a flawed democracy to a parliamentary dictatorship where democratic rituals persist but democratic choice has been neutralized.

To address this crisis, the report calls for urgent international attention and recommends that future elections be conducted exclusively on paper ballots under independent, internationally supervised mechanisms, including oversight by the United Nations.