Lok Sabha Elections 2024 | Rajeev Chandrasekhar Counters Elon Musk’s EVM Tampering Remark | News18

Now it seems, ladies and gentlemen, there is a war of words between Tesla CEO Elon Musk as well as Union minister, former Union minister Rajiv Chandra Shekhar when it comes to the entire issue of electronic voting machines. Ladies and gentlemen, what it seems is that Musk has tweeted and I quote we should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high. And BJP leader Rajiv Chandra Shekhar has replied saying and I quote. This is a huge sweeping generalization statement that implies no one can build secure digital hardware. That's completely wrong. Elon Musks view may apply to the US and 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, Wi-Fi Internet. That is. There is no way in factory program controllers that cannot be reprogrammed. Electronic voting machines can be architected to and build right as India has done. What would be happy to run, we would be happy to run a tutorial for Elon. Is the pitch coming in from the former Union minister Rajiv Chandrashekhar, who has engaged in a war of words with Elon Musk on Twitter? Ladies and gentlemen, that is the piece of break news that's coming in. Elon Musk now wading into the entire electronic voting machine debate saying that anything can be hacked. I'm joined by my colleague Akash Sharma on the broadcast. So, Akash, while there is the Congress and the opposition parties on one side, clearly after the election results came out, they didn't talk about election voting machines. Elon Musk wading into this entire conversation and now award of words with Rajiv Chandra Shekhar. This debate once again reignited by the Tesla CEO as well as the CEO of the Platform X and something that the opposition can clearly mobilize once again if it has to take on the BJP. Akash, can you hear me? I will try to reconnect with Akash over there. But once again, ladies and gentlemen, let's take you through the war of words that is emanating from this entire debate over Evms now sparked by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Elon Musk tweeted and I quote, we should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high. Saying that the way technology is advancing, electronic voting machines are still vulnerable to hacking. But Rajiv Chandrasekhar has tweeted back to Elon Musk saying there is a This is a huge sweeping generalization statement that implies no one can build secure digital hardware and that is completely wrong. Saying in India factory program controllers that cannot be reprogrammed is a technology that India has applied to electronic voting machines. Saying that they are custom designed, secure and isolated from any network or media. No connectivity, no Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Internet. That is there is no way in is the pitch coming in from Rajeev Chandrasekhar even saying we he would be happy to run a tutorial for Elon. Akash is back with us on the broadcast. So Akash, while the the BJP government has time and again made this pitch against the Congress party, saying that there have been enough judgments, there have been enough statements from the Election Commission saying that Evms are secure. Elon Musk now wading into this entire debate saying that technology is progressing at such a fast-paced guide and given the advent of artificial intelligence that electronic voting machines are also susceptible to hacking. Rajesh and the Shekhar making the point once again that Evms are secure and they cannot be hacked. But Elon Musk also making the point that technology is advancing and anything can be hacked. So once again, this debate reigniting and clearly it seems that the Congress party now getting that ammunition from Elon Musk to reignite this issue once again. So you see, you know, these 4 words, anything can be had, you know, are going to ignite a fresh debate on social media at least because when we talk about Twitter. So this has become a hot topic in the past few months. Other than the politics that has happening domestically, you know, you know internationally also this is one big issue because not just for India but for several other countries, you know opposition parties have time and again issue you know raised this particular issue that how any electronic machine can be had there. In fact this was the thread on which you know Rajesh Chandra Chandra Shekhar replied after that you know Ilan must be saying that anything can be had. So, you know, we are now waiting to see an interesting debate on social media. But one thing is for sure that Election Commission has also time and again explained and has clarified, you know, that these machines cannot be hacked and how the mechanics of these machines are different. In fact, in the Supreme Court, I remember that how this case went into Supreme Court. In fact, I remember the initial days where AAM Aadmi Party leaders used to claim that these machines can be hacked. I remember how Sarab Bharadwaj in the Delhi Assembly, you know, explained that how this machine can be hacked. But even that claim, you know, was nullified by the Election Commission. So this particular reply by the lawn mask is going to, you know, ignite a fresh debate on to whether or not EVM can be hacked, right? Thank you, Akash for getting us that piece of breaking news. Fresh debate likely to erupt on social media, ladies and gentlemen, after this war awards between Rajiv Chandrasekhar as well as Elon Musk.