BJP Leader Counters Elon Musk On EVM Hacking Concerns, Says 'Happy To Run A Tutorial'

Former Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Saturday said that Elon Musk's opinion that eletronic voting machines should be phased out is a "huge sweeping generalisation", which holds no truth. Chandrasekhar also extended an invitation to the Tesla CEO to visit India and pick up some knowledge. He refuted the tech billionaire's claim in a response to his post on X that electronic voting machines should be removed because of the "risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high."

This is a broad generalisation that implies no one can create secure digital hardware. "Wrong," said the former minister. According to Chandrasekhar, Musk's viewpoint may apply to the United States and other countries where regular computing platforms are used to build "Internet-connected voting machines."

Musk had reacted to Puerto Rico's primary elections, which allegedly had voting irregularities. Chandrasekhar also disputed Musk's statement, claiming that Indian EVMs are custom-designed, secure, and isolated from any network or media.

"There is no connectivity, Bluetooth, WiFi, or Internet; there is no way in. "Factory-programmed controllers that cannot be reprogrammed," explained the former minister. "Electronic voting machines can be designed and built exactly as India has done. "We'd be happy to run a tutorial, Elon," Chandrasekhar added.