NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday echoed Tesla CEO Elon Musk 's concerns about the potential vulnerability of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) to hacking.
Calling it a " black box ", Rahul warned that when institutions lack accountability, democracy risks becoming a mere facade, susceptible to fraudulent activities.
"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," Rahul Gandhi said in a post on X.
In a recent post on X, Elon Musk expressed his concerns about electronic voting machines, stating that they should be eliminated due to the risk of being hacked by humans or AI, even if the risk is small.
The opposition parties have been raising concerns over EVMs for some time now and had demanded a 100 per cent count of the VVPAT slips which was not allowed.
However, former Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar strongly opposed Musk's statement, labeling it as a "huge sweeping generalisation" that lacks accuracy.
Chandrasekhar argued that while Musk's perspective may hold true for the US and other countries where regular computing platforms are used to create "Internet-connected Voting machines," it does not apply to India.
He emphasized that EVMs in India are custom-designed, secure, and isolated from any network or media. Chandrasekhar even offered to provide a tutorial to Musk on the topic.
"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," former Union minister Chandrasekhar said in a post on X.
"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," he added.
Calling it a " black box ", Rahul warned that when institutions lack accountability, democracy risks becoming a mere facade, susceptible to fraudulent activities.
"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," Rahul Gandhi said in a post on X.
In a recent post on X, Elon Musk expressed his concerns about electronic voting machines, stating that they should be eliminated due to the risk of being hacked by humans or AI, even if the risk is small.
The opposition parties have been raising concerns over EVMs for some time now and had demanded a 100 per cent count of the VVPAT slips which was not allowed.
However, former Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar strongly opposed Musk's statement, labeling it as a "huge sweeping generalisation" that lacks accuracy.
Chandrasekhar argued that while Musk's perspective may hold true for the US and other countries where regular computing platforms are used to create "Internet-connected Voting machines," it does not apply to India.
He emphasized that EVMs in India are custom-designed, secure, and isolated from any network or media. Chandrasekhar even offered to provide a tutorial to Musk on the topic.
"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," former Union minister Chandrasekhar said in a post on X.
"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," he added.
You may also like
World Heart Day: Bhagyashree Highlights Power of Positive Thinking and Nutrition for a Healthy Heart
BBC's Fiona Bruce in Question Time 'bias' row after halting show for Reform correction
Dog trainer shares two of the easiest dog breeds to train
Man City held by Newcastle as injury crisis bites champions - 5 talking points
