Following a heated debate with Tesla CEO Elon Musk over his call to eliminate electronic voting machines (EVMs) due to potential hacking risks, former IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Monday criticised Musk’s understanding of Indian EVMs and countered his claim that every Tesla can be hacked.
“Elon Musk has not understood what the Indian EVM is. Indian EVMs do not lend itself to being hacked because it is precisely very limited intelligence device,” Chandrasekhar told news agency ANI. “To claim that there cannot be a secure digital product in the world is to then say that every Tesla car can be hacked.”
The former Union Minister added, “While I respect Elon Musk and what he has achieved. I think he is factually incorrect in saying that anything can be hacked. A calculator or a toaster cannot be hacked. Therefore, there is a limit in terms of where this paradigm of hacking can extend.”
#WATCH | On his interaction with Elon Musk on EVMs, BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar says, “While I respect Elon Musk and what he has achieved. I think he is factually incorrect in saying that anything can be hacked. A calculator or a toaster cannot be hacked. Therefore, there is… pic.twitter.com/gn14Hjz3pc— ANI (@ANI) June 17, 2024
‘EVM is currently a black box’: Rahul Gandhi
Weighing in on the debate, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi stated that EVMs are currently a “black box” and urged the Election Commission (EC) to either ensure complete transparency of the machines and processes or abolish them.
“When democratic institutions are captured, the only safeguard lies in electoral processes that are transparent to the public. EVM is currently a black box. EC must either ensure complete transparency of the machines and processes, or abolish them,” Gandhi shared on his social media platform X.
Musk, who is also the CEO of SpaceX, called for the elimination of electronic voting machines in an X post on Saturday.
“We should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high,” Musk wrote, sharing a post by Robert F Kennedy Jr that had cited media reports about hundreds of voting irregularities related to electronic voting machines in Puerto Rico’s primary elections.
Responding to Musk, Chandrasekhar disagreed with Musk’s opinion about EVMs, arguing that his statement was a “huge sweeping generalisation.”
“This is a huge sweeping generalisation statement that implies no one can build secure digital hardware. Wrong,” he said.
He further stated that while such a view “may apply to the US and other places, where they use regular compute platforms to build Internet-connected voting machines,” Indian EVMs are secure and isolated from any network.
(With inputs from agencies)
Comments
0 comment