"There is Risk of Being Hacked" Remark of Elon Musk on EVM, Erupts Controversy in India
- By Thetripurapost Desk, New Delhi
- Jun 17, 2024
- 272
The statements of world-renowned billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk on the dangers of hacking of electronic voting machines have given an opportunity to the opposition parties of India, who have been raising questions on the transparency of EVMs for a long time, to heat up this issue.
Musk's post was about the US presidential election. He has advised against conducting the presidential election through electronic voting machines. In his post, he wrote, "Electronic voting machines should be abolished. There is a risk of it being hacked by humans or AI, although this risk is low, it is still very high."
Leaders of some other opposition parties in India including Congress immediately pounced on this and showed no hesitation in raising their questions about the electoral transparency of EVMs. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi termed EVMs as black boxes and said that anyone is allowed to investigate it.
On the other hand, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav reiterated the opposition's old demand to stop using EVMs and conduct elections using ballot papers in view of the dangers of EVMs being hacked.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena UBT, which lost the Mumbai North-West Lok Sabha seat by 48 votes, has supported Musk's apprehensions by linking it to EVM hacking.
Rahul Gandhi raised fresh questions about EVMs by citing Elon Musk's post on X asking people to stop using EVMs due to the dangers of EVM hacking and a report that the mobile phone of a relative of the Shiv Sena Shinde faction candidate who won the Mumbai North-West seat was allegedly connected to the EVM.
Rahul Gandhi said in a post on X, "EVMs in India are a 'black box' and no one is allowed to examine them. Serious concerns are being raised about the transparency of our electoral process. When institutions lack accountability, democracy becomes a sham and the possibility of fraud increases."
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav also agreed with Musk's comment on EVM hacking and said in his post on X that 'technology' is meant to solve problems, if it becomes the reason for problems, then its use should be stopped. Today, when there are apprehensions of EVM tampering in many elections of the world and the world's renowned technology experts are openly writing about the danger of EVM tampering, then what is the reason behind the insistence on using EVM, BJP should clarify this.
Akhilesh said that we reiterate our demand to conduct all the upcoming elections through ballot papers.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena UBT leader Aditya Thackeray took a dig at both the Central Government and the Election Commission regarding EVMs in the context of Musk's statement and said whether the Central Government or the Election Commission will send a notice to close Musk's ex-account?
Shiv Sena UBT national spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi slammed BJP leader and former Union minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar for hitting back at Musk. Chaturvedi said that his reply to Musk is not relevant but childish because Musk is not a constitutional authority or statutory body entrusted with the serious responsibility of deciding election results and constitutional morality.