New Delhi: The results of the Lok Sabha elections have come. The government has also been formed but the controversy over EVMs has not stopped. Politics has once again heated up in India over EVMs. The government and the opposition are face to face. The Election Commission itself has to come forward and give clarification. Now the question arises that why the ruckus over EVMs after the elections? So the answer to this is that the smoke of the political fire over EVMs in India has risen from about 7 thousand kilometers away. Yes, this ruckus is happening in India amidst the questions being raised on the use of EVMs in elections in America. Ever since Elon Musk posted on X advocating the removal of EVMs, the ruling and opposition parties in India also jumped into this controversy.
Actually, questions have been raised on EVMs in the primary elections in America. An incident of mismatch in EVMs has come to light in Puerto Rico. Irregularities were found in the counting of EVMs and paper trail. The votes hidden in the EVM were counted somewhere else and in someone else’s account. This irregularity was found only because of the paper trail. This mistake was identified and corrected through the paper trail. There is no dispute on the results of the primary elections of June 2 in America. The results have come out correctly and the winners have been correctly identified. But in some cases the number of votes shown by the EVM machine was less than the number of votes shown on paper. Some machines even showed zero votes for some candidate, while he had got some more votes on paper.
Why was there a ruckus in America
After this, the Election Commission of Puerto Rico has said that it is reviewing its contract with the American electronic voting company after hundreds of discrepancies were found in the ‘primary’ elections. Now questions are being raised in America that how is it possible that EVMs will not be tampered with where there is no paper trail facility? There is a ruckus in America on this incident as well. The fire of EVMs flared up in India when Elon Musk posted against EVMs. Elon Musk said that we should remove electronic voting machines. There is a risk of it being hacked by humans or AI. Even if it is a small risk, but there is a risk.
Controversy over Elon Musk’s post
Actually, Elon Musk said this by reposting a post of US presidential independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy wrote in his post, ‘Many irregularities were observed during voting with EVMs in Puerto Rico’s primary election. Fortunately it was a paper trail, so the problem was identified and the vote count was corrected. What would happen in those areas where there is no paper trail? It is important for American citizens to know that each of their votes has been counted and no breach can be made in their elections. They will have to return to paper ballots to avoid electronic interference in elections.’
There is uproar over EVMs in India too
After Elon Musk’s post on EVM, a political battle started in India. BJP leader and former Union Minister Rajiv Chandrashekhar slammed Elon Musk and said that he should come to India and learn something. He said that India’s EVMs have no connectivity, no Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, no internet; there is no way. Factory-programmed controllers that cannot be reprogrammed. However, Rahul Gandhi also did not back down from this controversy. He also expressed doubts on EVMs and raised questions on it. Sharing Musk’s post, he wrote that EVM in India is a black box and no one is allowed to investigate it. He mentioned the Mumbai incident in his post
Tags: Elon Musk, Rahul Gandhi, US News
FIRST PUBLISHED : June 17, 2024, 12:07 IST