EVM again becomes an issue on social media, debate hots up after Musk tweet

New Delhi, June 16 (HS): A news and a tweet once again started a debate on EVM machines on the Internet on Sunday. After temporarily retreating from the race of issues after the results, EVM has again come to the fore as an issue.

X owner Elon Musk tweeted in which he said that "we should completely remove EVMs. Even a slight possibility of it being hacked by humans or AI is too much." His statement was in local context but caused a debate on social media in India.

Former union Minister Rajiv Chandrashekhar said that it is a common statement that no one can make secure digital hardware and it is wrong. Elon Musk's idea may be applicable in America and other places - where they use regular compute platforms to make voting machines connected to the Internet. But Indian EVMs are custom designed, secure and isolated from any network or media - no connectivity, no Bluetooth, WiFi, Internet. That is, there is no way in it. Factory programmed controllers that cannot be reprogrammed. Electronic voting machines can be designed and manufactured exactly as India has done. "We would be happy to run a tutorial for Elon," he added.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi shared Elon Musk's tweet and said that EVMs in India are a "black box" and no one is allowed to check them. Serious concerns are being raised about transparency in our electoral process. When there is a lack of accountability in institutions, democracy becomes a sham and becomes a victim of fraud.