Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday once again raised EVM (electronic voting machines (EVMs)) hours after billionaire tech magnate Elon Musk’s statement on EVMs.
“EVMs in India are a “black box,” and nobody is allowed to scrutinize them. Serious concerns are being raised about transparency in our electoral process. Democracy ends up becoming a sham and prone to fraud when institutions lack accountability,” Gandhi posted on X.
Gandhi tagged a media report which claimed that a relative of Shiv Sena’s candidate, who won the polls from Mumbai’s north west by 48 votes, had a phone that unlocks an EVM. The former Congress president also tagged the post on X by Elon Musk in which he talked about eliminating EVMs.
In the wake of recent voting irregularities in Puerto Rico’s primary elections, Robert F Kennedy Jr, an independent candidate for President of the United States, has called for a return to paper ballots to ensure the integrity of elections.
His stance has been echoed by CEO of Tesla and X, Elon Musk, who voiced concerns over the potential for electronic voting machines to be hacked. Elon Musk responded in agreement, asserting, “We should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high.”
He has cited concerns about their potential vulnerabilities to hacking. His remarks come amidst growing debates over the security of EVMs worldwide, especially following allegations of irregularities in Puerto Rico’s recent primary elections.
However, unsurprisingly, former union minister and BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar has dismissed Musk’s comments as “a huge sweeping generalization statement that implies no one can build secure digital hardware. Wrong.”
Elon Musk’s view may apply to the US n other places – where they use regular computer platforms to build Internet connected Voting machines, he said.
But Indian EVMs, he went on to claim, are “custom designed, secure and isolated from any network or media – No connectivity, no bluetooth, wifi, Internet. ie there is no way in. Factory programmed controllers that cannot be reprogrammed.”
“Electronic voting machines can be architected and built right as India has done. We wud be happy to run a tutorial Elon,” he signed off in a message posted on platform X.