• Source:JND
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EVM Row:  Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's criticism of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) has struck a chord with opposition leaders in India as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday expressed concerns over his statements suggesting possibilities of EVM tampering. Earlier, writing a post on X, Musk called for eliminating EVMs, citing that these can be hacked by artificial intelligence (AI) or humans.

Musk's remarks came in reaction to a post by the nephew of former US President John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in which he alleged voting irregularities in Puerto Rico's primary elections. Kennedy, an independent US presidential hopeful, had alleged that Puerto Rico's elections experienced hundreds of voting irregularities related to EVMs.

Quoting Elon Musk's X post, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi shared a news article that alleged that a Shiv Sena Lok Sabha candidate in Maharashtra had used his mobile phone to unlock the EVM. While calling the EVM a 'black box,' Rahul Gandhi said that '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," the Congress leader added.

Highlighting Musk's claim in his X post, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav asked the ruling BJP why the elections in India are being conducted using EVMs when there are allegations of EVM tampering all around the world and renowned technology experts (including Musk) are openly writing about the danger of EVM tampering.

"EVM tampering is being expressed in many elections around the world and the world's renowned technology experts are openly writing about the danger of EVM tampering, so what is the reason behind the insistence on using EVMs? The BJP should clarify this," Yadav wrote in his post.

The attack on EVMs, however, met with a strong response from the BJP. Responding to Musk's criticism of EVMs, BJP leader and former Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar called his take on EVMs a "huge sweeping generalisation" which holds no truth. He also invited the Tesla chief to come and learn some lessons in India.

"This is a huge sweeping generalisation statement that implies no one can build secure digital hardware. Elon Musk's view may apply to the US and other places where they use regular computer platforms to build Internet-connected voting machines. But Indian EVMs are custom designed, secure, and isolated from any network or media - no connectivity, no Bluetooth, wifi, or Internet. 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 would be happy to run a tutorial for Elon," the Minister wrote.