Elon Musk vs ex-Union Minister over EVMs, Rahul Gandhi jumps in too
Former Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has pushed back against billionare tech magnate Elon Musk’s comments on electronic voting machines (EVMs), labelling them as a “huge sweeping generalisation” without basis.
Elon Musk, in a post on X, had raised concerns about electronic voting machines, suggesting they should be eliminated due to the potential risk of being hacked by humans or AI, even if the risk is minimal.
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Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who served as Minister of State for the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in Modi Cabinet 2.0, countered Musk’s view, stating it might apply to the US and other regions where standard computing platforms are used to build “Internet-connected voting machines”.
However, Chandrasekhar asserted that this is not the case in India, where EVMs are custom-designed, secure, and isolated from any network or media.
“This is a huge sweeping generalization statement that implies no one can build secure digital hardware. Wrong. @elonmusk’s view may apply to US n other places – where they use regular compute platforms to build Internet connected Voting machines. But Indian EVMs are custom designed, secure and isolated from any network or media – No connectivity, no bluetooth, wifi, Internet. ie there is no way in. Factory programmed controllers that cannot be reprogrammed (sic),” Chandrasekhar tweeted.
The entrepreneur-turned-politician also offered to give a tutorial to the SpaceX boss demonstrating the robustness of EVMs designed in India.
“Electronic voting machines can be architected and built right as India has done. We wud be happy to run a tutorial Elon,” he said.
To this, Musk replied with a pithy, “Anything can be hacked.”
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi also entered the controversy and backed Musk’s view on the matter. The Gandhi scion, who has often questioned the line that EVMs are inviolable, characterised them as a “black box.”
In a post on X, Gandhi 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.”
Amid the raging controversy, BJP IT Cell in-charge Amit Malviya issued a challenge to the Tesla CEO and a put-down to Rahul Gandhi.
“Elon Musk or whoever else thinks they can hack the EVM should approach the Election Commission of India and take a shot at it. But why is Rahul Gandhi complaining about Indian democracy to Musk? What can Musk do? Or is crying before the world and demeaning India part of Congress’s DNA? We just had an election and people of India rejected this dynast for a third time in row. But he still does not get itâ€æ,” tweeted Malviya.
During the recently concluded marathon Lok Sabha election, the Opposition had alleged that there was a possibility of the ruling BJP tampering with electronic voting machines to turn poll outcomes in their favour. In response, Chief Election Commissioner Rajeev Kumar assured that EVMs are “100% safe”.
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