June 16th 2024.
New Delhi: On Sunday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) expressed their disagreement with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's statement calling for the elimination of electronic voting machines (EVMs). They argued that while Musk's views may apply to the United States, they do not necessarily apply to India.
Musk had recently shared his opinion on X, stating, "We should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high." However, BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar countered Musk's criticism by stating, "This statement is a huge sweeping generalization that implies no one can build secure digital hardware. This is incorrect. Elon Musk's view may be valid for the US and other countries where they use regular compute platforms to build internet-connected voting machines."
Chandrasekhar went on to explain that Indian EVMs are custom designed, secure, and isolated from any network or external media. They have no connectivity, no Bluetooth, no Wi-Fi, and no internet. He also highlighted the fact that they are programmed at the factory and cannot be reprogrammed.
The former minister of state for information technology also offered to educate Musk on the architecture and construction of EVMs in India. "We would be happy to run a tutorial for Elon," he added. BJP's IT department head Amit Malviya also chimed in, stating that if Musk or anyone else believes they can hack the EVMs, they should approach the Election Commission of India and try their luck.
Malviya also took a dig at Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition party, after Gandhi expressed concerns about Musk's comments regarding the Indian electoral process. "Why is Rahul Gandhi complaining to Musk about Indian democracy? What can Musk do? Is crying before the world and demeaning India a part of Congress's DNA? We just had an election, and the people of India have rejected this dynast for the third time in a row, but he still doesn't seem to understand," Malviya stated.
In conclusion, BJP members assured that EVMs in India are built and designed correctly and are not susceptible to hacking. They also invited Musk to learn more about the technology and process behind Indian EVMs.
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