Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, claimed the ECI has no answer to the allegations he made about bogus electors on the voter rolls in several states. Gandhi has earlier held a number of press conferences levelling “vote theft” allegations against the BJP government.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accused the BJP-led government of “capturing institutions” including the Election Commission of India (ECI) during a debate on electoral reforms in the Lok Sabha (lower house of the parliament). Gandhi said that when a Congress-led government comes to power at the Centre, it will retrospectively change the law that gives immunity to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and ECs against legal action for decisions taken while in office. “We will come and find you,” he warned.
Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, claimed the ECI has no answer to the allegations he made about bogus electors on the voter rolls in several states. Gandhi has earlier held a number of press conferences levelling “vote theft” allegations against the BJP government. Suggesting electoral reforms, the Congress leader said the ECI should give machine-readable voter lists to political parties one month before polls, take back guidelines on destruction of video footage after 45 days, give access to Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), and change the law about the composition of the committee which elects the Chief Election Commissioner and the ECs. “Change the law that allows the Election Commissioner to get away with whatever they want to do. I want to assure the Election Commissioner, they might be under the impression that the law lets them get away with it. Let me remind them, don’t worry, we are going to change the law retrospectively and we will come and find you,” he said.
The Clause 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023 provides the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners immunity from any legal action for decisions taken while in office. The ECI had earlier this year revised its guidelines on preserving video footage and photographs of elections and communicated to Chief Electoral Officers that the retention period will be 45 days after the declaration of results. It said that data can be destroyed if no election petition is filed during the period.
Gandhi, in his speech, also accused the BJP government of capturing institutions such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). “I am saying that institutions of India are captured, and I will come to the point that the Election Commission is captured. The project of the RSS was to capture the institutional framework of the country and I said how the education system has been captured. Vice Chancellor after Vice Chancellor after Vice Chancellor is placed not on merit, not on capability, not on scientific temper, but on the fact that he belongs to a particular organization,” he said in the Lok Sabha. “Second capture, which helps in destroying democracy, the capture of the intelligence agencies, we have the Home Minister sitting here, the capture of the CBI, of the ED, of the Income Tax Department, and the systematic placement of bureaucrats who favour their ideology and attack the opposition and anybody who chooses to oppose the RSS.” He accused the RSS of believing in a hierarchy and that “they believe that they should be on top of that hierarchy.” The Lok Sabha on Tuesday took up a discussion on electoral reforms, a day after it discussed the 150th anniversary of the national song Vande Mataram.
(With inputs from news agency ANI).
