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Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)s Member of Parliament, Vijay Kumar Hansdak, on Tuesday slammed the Election Commission of India (ECI) ahead of the INDIA blocs protest march against the EC. He said that stripping people of thier right to vote is unacceptable in a free country like India, adding that questions against such misuse of institutions are now being raised, not only by the opposition, but also by people from within the system.
Given the role the Election Commission has played and the way appointments were made, questions are now being raised not just by the opposition, but from within those offices as well, Hansadk said on the sidelines of the INDIA blocs march. The JMM MP from Rajmahal said that the role of the Eelection Commission has been under scrutiny for a long time and it has come to the forefront especially after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll, which took away the voting rights of of more than 13 crore voters across the country. "The role of the Election Commission has been under scrutiny for a long time. In a free country, taking such misuse of the system to an extreme and stripping people of their voting rights is unacceptable, added the 43-year-old. Not only the EC, Hansdak, who is the son of a former Congress leader, Thomas Hansdak, who was also Jharkhand Congress president at one point in time, said that all the institutions are being compromised and misused by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). All institutions have been misused; it has been done through the deployment of security forces... There are examples from many states where the election process was virtually destroyed and manipulated entirely in favour of the BJP. This is never in the interest of a free country, he said. Earlier, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) announced that its members will also participate in the opposition parties protest march over the alleged arbitrary actions of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in connection with the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the deletion of the names of more than 13 crore voters across the country. Opposition leaders and MPs are set to march towards Nirvachan Sadan, the headquarters of the Election Commission of India (ECI), in the national capital on Tuesday morning. Leaders of several INDIA bloc parties will participate in the march. The protest is part of a broader "Save Democracy" campaign announced by the Opposition, under which its leaders have been holding demonstrations and public programmes against the EC. (ANI)
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