Elon Musk's Call to Eliminate EVMs Sparks Heated Debate in India

Tesla CEO Elon Musk's recent statement on X (formerly Twitter) advocating for eliminating electronic voting machines (EVMs) due to potential hacking risks has sparked a heated debate in India.

On Saturday, Musk tweeted, "We should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high." His remarks came in response to a post by US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. regarding voting irregularities related to EVMs in Puerto Rico's primary elections.

Musk's statement drew a strong reaction from Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who served as the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology between 2021 and 2024. Chandrasekhar pushed back against Musk's view, asserting that it might apply to the US and other regions where standard computing platforms are used to build "Internet-connected voting machines," but not to India's EVMs.

"Indian EVMs are custom-designed, secure, and isolated from any network or media - No connectivity, no Bluetooth, WiFi, Internet. i.e., 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," Chandrasekhar stated on X.

When Musk replied, "Anything can be hacked," Chandrasekhar acknowledged the technical possibility but argued that it was a different conversation from the security and reliability of EVMs compared to paper voting.

The debate further intensified when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi backed Musk's concerns, claiming that EVMs in India are a "black box." Gandhi shared a news report alleging that a relative of a winning candidate in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections was using a phone connected to an EVM.

Adding to the discussion, Sam Pitroda, the former advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and credited with modernising India's telecom infrastructure, endorsed Musk's call for paper ballots, stating, "The man with the most gold has spoken on the EVM and the need to go to Paper ballet as the gold standard. I hope we listen, learn and act."

However, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar has maintained that EVMs are "100% safe" and cannot be hacked, dismissing allegations of manipulation in past elections.