The Opposition plans a protest rally at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan this Sunday. They demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleging voter list issues. Rahul Gandhi claimed he relies on a feeling of vote theft. However, the President told the group they brought complaints without any valid evidence.
The BJP has the track record of protecting democracy from Indira Gandhi's dictatorship 50 years ago. It will protect it from Rahul Gandhi's anarchy now
This Sunday, the Opposition, led by Congress, plans a protest rally at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on the specious ground that the Election Commission deleted crores of eligible voters in the name of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
It is interesting how the Opposition keeps changing its goalposts regarding elections in India. It made a brouhaha over EVM tampering a few years ago, alleging that EVMs with a 99 per cent battery level gave victory to the Bharatiya Janata Party while those with a 60 or 70 per cent battery level went for Congress. The ECI took pains to respond to this ludicrous claim, stating that the battery of the control unit of the EVM has no correlation with the election outcome. The CEC explained that brand new, non-reusable alkaline batteries are inserted into the EVMs and sealed in the presence of the candidates' polling agents.
Then Rahul Gandhi and his party began chanting "vote chori" -- vote theft -- without providing any valid proof. At a recent press conference, a journalist asked him "when and how" he realised that "vote chori" was happening. Rahul Gandhi's answer was funny. "When I was seven years old in 1977, Indiraji was prime minister. Everybody, including her, knew that they were losing. Feeling comes," he claimed. That feeling can prove wrong once, he admitted, but insisted that "it can happen once. But not twice. At no cost the third and fourth time. There is something known as a feeling." He went on to argue that in the last two-three elections, "our technical experts were telling us this was not possible. This cannot be. How is this happening? Slowly, suspicion was building up." So, it was just a feeling and suspicion, born out of his sense of entitlement, because "our technical experts" said so.
With no evidence, the Opposition went knocking on the doors of the President of India. Being a decent person, she politely told Rahul Gandhi and his ilk that they had brought complaints without any evidence. Coming out of the meeting, the Congress scion made an odd claim: He was surprised that the President did not dismiss their concerns. Then he made the absurd argument that not he and his party but the ruling establishment should "prove to us that you have not cheated in the election".
Like the complaints about EVM tampering, this "vote chori" allegation, too, has no tangible evidence to support it. Nowhere in the country did ordinary voters complain about their votes being stolen -- in no booths and no villages. Then came the insistence that ballot papers should be brought back. But when elections to the Silchar Municipal Corporation were conducted in early October using paper ballots, Congress was able to win in just two out of 42 wards. The BJP won 32 and its allies two. In the elections to 28 seats in legislative councils in four states -- Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka and Maharashtra -- using ballot papers earlier this week, Congress managed to win just one seat while the BJP and its allies captured 16. In the Congress-ruled state of Karnataka, the NDA won all four MLC seats and the ruling party drew a blank. It is important to underscore that the voters in these elections were graduates and teachers, meaning that the educated and enlightened sections of our country are roundly rejecting Rahul Gandhi's propaganda about the SIR, EVMs, and "vote chori".
His campaign against the SIR, too, is a similar lie. There have been eight intensive revisions of the electoral rolls in the country since 1952; the current SIR is the ninth. Seven of those eight were conducted by Congress governments. The last time such a revision happened was in 2002-04. After two decades, the Election Commission is conducting that exercise again.
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Congress is creating a ruckus over it for two reasons: One, it is unable to face the BJP juggernaut at the hustings directly, and hence an effort is being made for regime change through anarchy; and two, they want to project the hard-won victory of Narendra Modi and the BJP as election theft.
The Opposition has propaganda, but the people are with Modi. Congress may finally bring a few thousand people to Delhi, but the BJP will go to thousands of towns and villages to inform a billion Indians about the Opposition's lies and sins. It has the track record of protecting democracy from Indira Gandhi's dictatorship 50 years ago. It will protect it from Rahul Gandhi's anarchy now.