Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) MP, and former Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Sunday came head on with American billionaire Elon Musk and said Musk\u2019s statement on electronic voting machines (EVMs) \u201cimplies no one can build secure digital hardware.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a huge sweeping generalisation statement that implies no one can build secure digital hardware. Wrong…@elonmusk\u2019s view may apply to US and other places – where they use regular compute platforms to build Internet connected voting machines,\u201d Chandrasekhar said in a post on X, responding to Musk. <\/p>\n
The statement was in reaction to a Musk\u2019s post on X which read , \u201cWe should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chandrasekhar even explained that the Indian EVMs are custom designed, secure and isolated from any network or media.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo connectivity, no bluetooth, wi-fi, 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. We would be happy to run a tutorial Elon,\u201d Chandrasekhar said in a befitting reply.<\/p>\n
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- \nAlso read: All you need to know about electronic voting machines<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\nCredibility concerns
\n<\/h5>\nMusk\u2019s statement turned political in India with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav also raising questions on credibility of the EVMs.<\/p>\n
Gandhi said EVMs in India are a \u201cblack box\u201d which nobody is allowed to scrutinise, and asserted that \u201cserious concerns\u201d are being raised about transparency in the country\u2019s electoral process. \u201cDemocracy ends up becoming a sham and prone to fraud when institutions lack accountability,\u201d Gandhi said in a post on X.<\/p>\n
He also tagged a media report which claimed that a relative of Shiv Sena\u2019s candidate, who won the polls from Mumbai\u2019s North-West seat by 48 votes, had a phone that unlocks an EVM.<\/p>\n
\u201cTechnology is meant to solve problems, if it becomes the cause of problems then its use should be stopped…Today, when fears of EVM tampering are being expressed in many elections of the world and the world\u2019s renowned technology experts are openly writing about the danger of EVM tampering, then what is the reason behind the insistence on using EVM, BJP should clarify this,\u201d Yadav said. He demanded that all future elections should be conducted through ballot papers.<\/p>\n