Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a former business partner of Republic TV founder Arnab Goswami, has been left red-faced by Tesla founder Elon Musk for desperately arguing that the EVM could not be rigged in India amidst charges of electoral fraud in the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls. The BJP-led NDA went on to win the majority, paving the way for a third term form Narendra Modi as the prime minister.
Musk had tweeted about the vulnerability of EVMs to potential rigging, thereby asking for it to be banned. He had tweeted, “We should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high.”
Although, Musk had made his observation in the US context, Chandrasekhar took a dim view of the former’s objection to the use of EVMs. A former minister in the Modi government, Chandrasekhar wrote on Twitter, now known as X, “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. Electronic voting machines can be architected and built right as India has done. We wud be happy to run a tutorial Elon.”
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… https://t.co/GiaCqU1n7O
— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@RajeevRC_X) June 16, 2024
Reacting to Chandrasekhar’s lengthy rant, Musk posted a one-liner reply as he wrote, “Anything can be hacked.” This appeared to force the former BJP MP to soften his stance and he urged Musk to ‘agree to disagree.’
“Technically ur right – anything is possible E.g..wth quantum compute, i can decrypt any level of encryption, with lab level tech n plenty of resources, i can hack any digital hardware/system incldng flight controls of a glass cockpit of a jet etc etc. But thats a different type of a conversatn from EVMs being secure n reliable vis a vis paper voting. And we can agree to disagree,” he wrote.
Technically ur right – anything is possible E.g..wth quantum compute, i can decrypt any level of encryption, with lab level tech n plenty of resources, i can hack any digital hardware/system incldng flight controls of a glass cockpit of a jet etc etc. But thats a different type…
— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@RajeevRC_X) June 16, 2024
Chandrasekhar lost the MP election from Kerala in the just-concluded parliamentary polls. He had helped Arnab Goswami found Republic TV, which is considered to be a key media platform, supporting the BJP and the Modi government.
Janta Ka Reporter has always maintained that the use of EVMs in Indian elections was key for Modi government to beat the anti-incumbency as machines were prone to be rigged. The role of EVMs has come under scanner after it emerged that a relative of Ravindra Waikar, the Shiv Sena candidate who won from Mumbai North West Lok Sabha constituency by just 48 seats, had used his mobile phone to gain access to an EVM during the counting of votes on 4 June.
Though the election commission of India has denied the reports, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi did not mince words when tweeted, “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.”