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Rajeev Chandrasekhar's comeback amid hacking row with Elon Musk: ‘Then Tesla…’
On his back-and-forth with Musk, Chandrasekhar said the former was commenting in the context of the United States.
BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Monday renewed his verbal duel with American businessman Elon Musk over the latter's remarks on electronic voting machines, as he said that electronic devices not connected with any network can't be hacked. Reacting to Musk's claim on X that "everything can be hacked", the former union minister said a "calculator or a toaster cannot be hacked".
Criticising the billionaire's remarks, he said if the former's observation was true, Tesla cars can also be hacked.
Tesla, the biggest premium electric car company in the world, was founded by Elon Musk.
"While I respect Elon Musk and what he has achieved. I think he is factually incorrect in saying that anything can be hacked. A calculator or a toaster cannot be hacked. Therefore, there is a limit in terms of where this paradigm of hacking can extend. Elon Musk has not understood what the Indian EVM is. Indian EVMs do not lend themselves to being hacked because it is precisely a very limited intelligence device...He is factually wrong...To claim that there cannot be a secure digital product in the world is to then say that every Tesla car can be hacked," he told ANI.
On his back-and-forth with Musk, Chandrasekhar said the former was commenting in the context of the United States, specifically Puerto Rico.
"He made this very sweeping comment- all EVMs can be hacked. I am nobody to get into an argument with somebody like Elon Musk. But, that statement or that generalisation was far too sweeping for it to be left unchallenged. Therefore, I pointed out to him that Indian EVMs are very different from what Americans know of EVMs because the US and the Western world use connected devices," he added.
He said Indian EVMs are safe because they are not connected.
"If there is no connectivity to Wi-Fi or 5G or the Internet in general, there is no way to get it...So, if there is a country that can design an EVM, right, and show the world it is certainly the Indian EVMs," he added.
Musk said on Sunday on X that electronic voting machines should be eliminated. Reacting to the remark, Chandrasekhar said he had made a sweeping generalisation. On this, Musk replied that "anything can be hacked".
Meanwhile, Musk's remark triggered a huge row in India.
The Opposition, which has time and again raised doubts over EVMs in India, backed the American billionaire.
"Elon Musk is a big name in AI and robotics...If such a person makes a comment on EVM which creates confusion about EVM, it is a big thing. The comment or statement should not be taken lightly," said NCP-SCP leader Rohit Pawar.
