'Democracy Ends...': Rahul Gandhi Backs Elon Musk's Call For Eliminating EVMs

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday, June 16, backed Tesla CEO Elon Musk after he called for eliminating Electronic Voting Machine from the election process. Gandhi asserted that "serious concerns" are being raised about transparency in India's electoral process. Elon Musk had called for the elimination of Electronic Voting Systems (EVM) over hacking concerns.

Rahul Gandhi, questioning the credibility of EVMs, said, "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." He 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 opposition parties have been raising concerns over EVMs for some time now and had demanded a 100 per cent count of the VVPAT slips which was not allowed. 

What Musk Said on EVMs?

Tesla CEO and businessman Elon Musk called for the elimination of Electronic Voting Systems (EVM). Musk said that in the times of Artificial Intelligence, the risk of EVM hacking could be high. He had made the comments while responding to the reports of voting inconsistencies in the United States. “We should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high,” said Musk in a post on X. His response came following allegations of irregularities in Puerto Rico's election. 

It has been alleged that Puerto Rico’s primary elections witnessed hundreds of voting irregularities related to EVMs, reported the Associated Press. After reports of irregularities, Puerto Rico’s elections commission has launched a probe into the contract between the commission and the voting machine company of the United States.