Elon Musk’s ’anything can be hacked’ VS ’Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s ’technically you are right’ on use of EVMs

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently raised alarms over the efficiency of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and the high risk of hacking these machines with the help of artificial intelligence or humans. As the owner of social media platform X, called for a complete elimination of EVMs from elections, former union minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar, responded to his suggestion and highlighted the success of EVMs in India.

Reacting to Elon Musk's post on X, Rajeev Chandrashekhar explained how Indian EVMs, unlike those used in other countries like the US, are custom designed, secure and isolated from any network or media. In his post on X, Chandrashekhar called Elon Musk's statement on EVMs as ‘generalised’ and expressed the possibility of building secure digital hardware for EVMs.

“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,” wrote Chandrashekhar in his post. 

Apart from advocating the use of isolated EVMs free from any network or media, the BJP leader invited Elon Musk for a short tutorial on how to build a safe and secure electronic voting machine for free and fair elections. “Electronic voting machines can be architected and built right as India has done. We wud be happy to run a tutorial Elon,”

Anything can be hacked: Elon Musk to Chandrashekhar

Chandrashekhar's post on X, met with a range of comments expressing different opinion. Continuing the conversation, Elon Musk also responded to the post and commented “Anything can be hacked”. The conversation began when Elon Musk suggested the elimination of the use of electronic voting machines earlier. 

“We should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high,” wrote Musk in his X post earlier.