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Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday criticised the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), accusing the central government of systematically undermining democratic institutions, manipulating the electoral machinery, and shielding election officials from accountability.
Speaking on multiple fronts, ranging from electoral reforms and Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) to the Chief Election Commissioner and the implementation of the Women's Reservation Bill, Kharge framed the oppositions ongoing struggle as a fight to save the Constitution rather than a race for political power. Kharge slammed Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants legal immunity to current and former Election Commissioners for official duties. Pointing out that even the President of India and the Chief Justice do not enjoy absolute immunity, he alleged the law was passed specifically to let the government execute errors through CEC Gyanesh Kumar without legal repercussions. We are asking the BJP to repeal that law. Because you are giving protection to the Election Commissioner and letting him make mistakes. And whatever mistakes have happened today, they happened through Gyanesh Kumar. Why did you give him immunity? It was given so that you can make mistakes through him just by telling him to do so, and forgive him. The Chief Justice doesnt have immunity. The President of India doesnt have it. An Election Commissioner does, Kharge said. Escalating the opposition's long-standing scepticism toward voting technology, Kharge demanded the removal of Gyanesh Kumar, the scrapping of EVMs, and a return to traditional ballot papers. He also called for strict checks against the manipulation of voter lists through Booth Level Officers (BLOs). Follow the constitutional system, and remove Gyanesh Kumar, whom you have appointed today. Along with removing him, change the system too. Bring the previous law back, get rid of the EVMs, bring back ballot papers, and the software that sits in one place and controls the whole country. Stop using BLOs to make changes to the voter list, he said. Kharge said the Congress was fighting to protect democracy and the Constitution, rather than to ensure victory for any particular political party. If a fair and impartial election takes place, let whoever wins. The Constitution doesnt say that the Congress party or any other party should win. We have won, and we have lost. And we are fighting to keep democracy alive, the Constitution alive. We are fighting to save it. We are not fighting against any one person. We work to fix the institution that you have ruined, he said. Addressing correspondence with the government, Kharge dismissed a reply from Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah use ministers and constitutional officers as "fronts" to avoid directly answering opposition concerns.We want it to be done when Modi ji and Shah ji make up their minds. A letter from the Rijiju doesnt mean anything. Because he doesn't have that much power. They are just using him as a front, just like they are using Gyanesh Kumar. They dont give a reply themselves, he said. Kharge warned the government against acting arbitrarily and said the public would hold it accountable if it failed to address the oppositions concerns. That doesnt mean you can do whatever you want. If youve made up your mind to act arbitrarily, the people of this country wont sit quietly. They will remove you, crush your ideas, and I am telling you this today, he said. On the Women's Reservation Bill, Kharge accused the Prime Minister of using the pretext of the delimitation exercise as a political trick to delay the law. He argued that the 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies canand shouldbe implemented immediately using the existing strength of the houses. You can implement the one-third womens reservation right now. Whatever the existing strength of the House is, or these delimitation exercises, you just use that to make it one-third. Whos stopping you? Youre purposely defaming others and badmouthing the opposition, saying, look, we want to do this and they are opposing it. If we were opposing it, would we have passed the law first? he said. Kharge accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of misleading the public over the implementation of womens reservation. This is Modi jis trick. They want to take this forward and are deceiving people by lying to them, he said. (ANI)
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