By Arun Srivastava
Undeterred of the innuendos and jibes by the second rung BJP leaders, describing him as destroyer of the democratic system and having some brain problem, which are being hurled against him certainly at the behest of Narendra Modi, for his expose of the Chief Election Commissioner’s vote theft exercise, Rahul Gandhi is going ahead to build a strong peoples’ movement to restore the sanctity of the democratic system and cleanse the system of the rot that has set in during Modi’s rule.
Rahul though did not make pubic of his future moves or what he intends to do with the findings, one thing is certain that the opposition parties would use the discoveries to build a strong public opinion against Modi for committing theft of the peoples’ mandate. Using the case study of Mahadevpura constituency in Karnataka as the model, Rahul emphatically asserted that Modi came to power committing robbery of the vote. Obviously it cannot be denied that Modi usurped the power through thievery. In this backdrop he does not have the moral right to continue in office and he must quit.
After the Mahadevpura exposure, demand has made to the CEC Gyanesh Kumar by the opposition parties to furnish the details of the votes polled, total number of votes and other relevant information about the Varanasi seat from where Narendra Modi won. They point out that Modi had lost in more than two-third of the booths of the constituency. He managed to win with a margin of one lakh just before the final count. They suspect that something of the Mahadevpura nature had happened in Varanasi too and it must be investigated.
The fraud has been carried out in a constituency which has been a BJP stronghold since its creation in 2008. The BJP’s vote share here has consistently ranged between 49 per cent (2013) and 54 per cent (2023 assembly election), while the Congress’s has hovered between 46 per cent (2013) and 41 per cent (2023). This obviously implied that BJP was not sure of retaining the seat and moreover it had to ensure that BJP gets more seats so that Modi becomes the prime minister.
The analysis of the votes makes an interesting reading: 11,965 duplicate voters appeared multiple times across different polling booths, 40,009 voters with fake or non-existent addresses (like “House Number Zero” and father’s names like “DFOIGOIDF”), 10,452 instances of bulk voters registered at single addresses (including 80 people living in a one-room house), 4,132 voters with invalid or missing photographs, and 33,692 cases of alleged Form 6 misuse, where septuagenarians and octogenarians were registered as “new voters”, a category meant for those aged 18-23. It is worth mentioning that in 2018, ECI had decided that in cases where bulk of leave in one premises, physical verification ought to be undertaken.
Many unprecedented events are taking place. It is for the first time that Modi is openly being accused of subverting the electoral process and the leader of opposition spent six months to collect materials to expose the ECI’s racket. Rigging, casting false votes, cases of impersonations, have been prevalent for long. But this is for the first time the ECI had conspired a major operation to debase the election process and system, which is certainly a crime against nation and its democratic system and its functioning. Strange enough for hiding its role, ECI has now started blaming Rahul: He should stop arriving at absurd conclusions and mislead the citizens.
Senior INDIA bloc leaders maintain that they are analysing the fallout of the expose and also working out the future plan of action. The Karnataka an Maharashtra state units of Election Commission have served notices to Rahul asking to substantiate his expose and certify the materials. Really this is shameless indeed. In the beginning of his presentation, he told the media that the materials he was using was obtained from ECI. He has only used them to ascertain the vote theft. Through this action CEC Gyanesh Kumar sent a clean message that he was unwilling to accept Rahul’s complaint.
The other option before the opposition is moving Supreme Court. But the recent approach of the apex court has simply disheartened them and made them circumspect. The manner in which the apex court has been treating their petition against SIR has disheartened. The remark of Justice Dutta has shocked them. They wonder how could he speak the language of BJP activists. Even some senior lawyers of the Supreme Court have suggested against moving apex court. A sense of trust deficit grips the opposition rank and file. Nevertheless the opposition leaders are yet to work out a comprehensive plan of action.
The second rung BJP leaders ought to realise that their rhetoric would not exonerate Modi of the charges of subverting the electoral system and also the Constitution. Their accusing Rahul would not restore the prestige of Modi or once again project him as the hero of the people, which he has already lost following Rahul’s investigative revelation. They also wrongly interpret his word of caution for the ECI officials. A person subverting the constitution and electoral process is undoubtedly indulging into anti-national act and to say that such person has a criminal mind would not be an exaggeration.
BJP leaders are quite angry at Rahul for his cautioning them. He had said that times would change and punishment would surely be meted out to those who were involved in the “scam”. The behavioural attitude of these people simply creates the impression that Modi would continue to rule India, as he is non-biological image. Their supine approach also sends the message that India has governance of fear.
Rahul has been right in saying; “Vote theft is not just an electoral scam, it is a major betrayal committed against the Constitution and democracy. Let the nation’s culprits hear this – times will change, punishment will surely be meted out, [ saza zaroor milegi ]” while he counted “five types of vote chori”: duplicate voters, fake address, bulk voter in single address, invalid photos, misuse of Form 6”. ECI used these tactics to steal one lakh vote out of the 6.5 lakh voters. (IPA Service)
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