Tesla’s helmsman, Elon Musk, ignited a firestorm on Saturday with his pronouncement advocating for the eradication of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), citing the perilous potential for them to be compromised. This proclamation was robustly rebuffed by Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a former Union Minister of State for Information Technology, who on Sunday lambasted Musk’s viewpoint as a “huge sweeping generalization” devoid of veracity.
Musk, undeterred, reiterated his stance with the assertion, “Anything can be hacked,” in retort to the former minister’s repudiation. Meanwhile, Congress stalwart Rahul Gandhi weighed in on Musk’s commentary, branding Indian EVMs as inscrutable “black boxes” and emphasizing the “serious concerns” being raised about the opacity of India’s electoral mechanisms.
“We should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of them being compromised by humans or AI, though minuscule, is still excessively high,” Musk expounded in his post on X, alluding to alleged voting irregularities in Puerto Rico’s primary elections.
In response to Musk’s digital salvo, Chandrasekhar dismissed the notion, inviting the Tesla magnate to India for a firsthand tutorial on secure digital hardware.
“This statement is a colossal overgeneralization that insinuates the impossibility of creating secure digital hardware. Incorrect,” the former MoS IT retorted. Chandrasekhar contended that Musk’s perspective might be pertinent to the US and other regions utilizing standard computing platforms for their “Internet-connected Voting machines.”
Chandrasekhar elaborated further, refuting Musk’s claims by highlighting that Indian EVMs are bespoke, secure, and insulated from any network or media connections. “No connectivity, no Bluetooth, no WiFi, no Internet; there is no ingress point. These are factory-programmed controllers that cannot be reprogrammed,” the former minister elucidated. “Electronic voting machines can be architected and fabricated correctly as India has accomplished. We would be delighted to provide a tutorial, Elon,” Chandrasekhar added.
Reacting to Chandrasekhar’s remarks, Musk reiterated, “Anything can be hacked,” prompting the former minister to concede: “Technically, you are right – anything is possible. For instance, with quantum computing, I can decrypt any level of encryption. With advanced lab technology and ample resources, I can compromise any digital hardware/system, including the flight controls of a jet’s glass cockpit, etc. But that’s a distinct conversation from EVMs being secure and reliable compared to paper voting. We can agree to disagree,” the former MoS IT remarked in his post.
In the midst of this debate, the National President of the Indian Youth Congress, Srinivas BV, questioned Chandrasekhar, challenging him on the possibility of Indian EVMs being hacked if “anything is possible.”
“According to BJP leader @RajeevRC_X, if ‘anything is possible,’ then why can’t Indian EVMs be hacked? Are they divinely protected? Or are they guarded by an avatar of the supreme soul?” the Congress leader queried.
Rahul Gandhi, reacting to Musk’s assertions, described EVMs in India as “black boxes” and shared an image from a news article alleging that a relative of a Shiv Sena candidate, victorious in Mumbai’s northwest by a narrow margin of 48 votes, possessed a phone capable of unlocking an EVM.
“EVMs in India are ‘black boxes,’ and nobody is permitted to scrutinize them. Serious concerns are being raised about the transparency of our electoral process. Democracy becomes a farce and susceptible to fraud when institutions lack accountability,” Rahul posted.
The news report implicated Mangesh Pandilkar, a relative of Mumbai North West MP Ravindra Waikar from the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. According to police sources, the phone could generate a one-time password (OTP) to unlock an EVM machine and was used on June 4 inside the NESCO Centre.