New Delhi, Dec. 9 (ANI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accused the BJP-led government of “capturing institutions,” including the Election Commission, during the Lok Sabha debate on Electoral Reforms. He said that when a Congress-led government comes to power at the Centre, it will retrospectively change the law that grants immunity to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Election Commissioners (ECs) for decisions taken while in office. “We will find you,” he warned.
Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, claimed that the Election Commission has no answer to the allegations he raised about bogus voters on electoral rolls in several states. He has previously held press conferences accusing the BJP of “vote chori.”
Suggesting electoral reforms, he said the Election Commission should provide a machine-readable voter list to political parties one month before polling, withdraw guidelines that allow destruction of video footage after 45 days, “give us access to Electronic Voting Machines,” allow review of their architecture, and amend the law governing the committee that selects the CEC and 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.
Clause 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023 grants the CEC and ECs immunity from legal action for decisions taken while in office.
Earlier this year, the Election Commission revised its guidelines on preserving video footage and photographs of elections. It informed Chief Electoral Officers that the retention period would be 45 days after the declaration of results and said the data may be destroyed if no election petition is filed within that period.
In his speech, Rahul Gandhi accused the BJP-led government of capturing institutions such as the CBI and Enforcement Directorate.
“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 is appointed not on merit, not on capability, not on scientific temper, but because they belong to a particular organization,” he said.
“Second capture, which helps in destroying democracy, is the capture of the intelligence agencies. We have the Home Minister sitting here—the capture of the CBI, the ED, the Income Tax Department—and the systematic placement of bureaucrats who favor their ideology and attack the opposition and anybody who chooses to oppose the RSS,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi faced interruptions during his remarks, with BJP members saying he was deviating from the subject of the debate.
He accused the RSS of believing in a hierarchy and asserted that “they believe they should be on top of that hierarchy.”
“It is the idea that every thread, every person in the Union of India is equal that disturbs my friends in the RSS. They are happy to see the fabric, but they cannot stand the idea that every single person in the fabric of our country, regardless of religion, community, or language, should be equal because they fundamentally do not believe in equality. They believe in a hierarchy, and they believe they should be on top of that hierarchy,” he said.
“On January 30, 1948, three bullets pierced the chest of Mahatma Gandhi. Nathuram Godse assassinated the father of our nation. Today, our friend does not embrace him. Today, our friends have pushed him away. This is an uncomfortable truth. But that’s not where the project ended. As I said, everything emerges from the vote. All institutions emerge from the vote. So it is obvious that the RSS has to capture all the institutions that have emerged from it. After Gandhiji’s assassination, the next step of the project was the wholesale capture of India’s institutional framework,” he added.
Rahul Gandhi began his speech by emphasizing that Mahatma Gandhi placed great importance on Khadi.
“Why was it that he framed the entire Indian freedom struggle around the concept of Khadi, and why is it that he only wore Khadi? Because Khadi is not just a cloth. Khadi is the expression of the people of India; it is the imagination, it is the sentiment, it is the productive force of the people of India. Whichever state you go to, you will find different fabrics—Himachali cap, Assamese gomcha, Banarasi saree, Kanchipuram saree, Naga jacket—and you will find that all these fabrics represent the people. These fabrics are beautiful,” he said.
“But if you look slightly deeper, you will find that each one of them has thousands of little threads embracing each other. No thread is superior to another. A single thread cannot protect you or keep you warm. But when they come together as fabric, they can keep you warm, protect you, and express what you have in your heart. In the same way, our nation is also a fabric made up of 1.4 billion people, woven together by the vote. This House where I am standing today—the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, Vidhan Sabhas across the country, Panchayats across the country—none of them would exist if the vote did not exist,” he added.
The Lok Sabha took up a discussion on Electoral Reforms on Tuesday, a day after it discussed the 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram.
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