BJP indulging in 'vote chori' in collusion with EC: Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accused the ruling BJP of committing the “biggest...act” of “vote chori” (stealing of votes) by “directing and using” the Election Commission.

Participating in a ‘Discussion on Election Reforms’ in Lok Sabha, Rahul brought Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah on the line of fire for changes in laws to tweak the appointment process of Election Commissioners, provide them a “gift of immunity” and allowing the destruction of CCTV footage of polling process after 45 days.

In his nearly 30-minute speech that saw some disruption after BJP MPs objected to his reference of “vote chori” to aid “capturing” of institutions, the Raebareli MP alleged he was "absolutely sure" that the BJP won Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Haryana among others by stealing votes.

Reiterating some of the demands he made earlier, Rahul said the biggest reforms would be to provide machine readable voter list to parties one month before every election, annulling the law allowing destruction of CCTV footage after 45 days and allow access to the architecture of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) so that they could examine it.

“The biggest...act you can do is ‘vote chori’. There is no bigger...act than ‘vote chori’ because when you destroy the vote, you destroy the fabric of this country. You destroy modern India, you destroy the idea of India. Vote-chori is an...act and those across the aisle (BJP) are doing an...act,” he said. A word he used to describe the act was expunged from records by Speaker Om Birla.

Emphasising that India is a “fabric made up of 1.4 billion people, who are woven together by the vote”, he said they cannot stand the idea that every person in the country is equal.

He said the “project” did not end with the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi as the "next step was the capture of institutions". “After Gandhiji's assassination, the next step of the project was the wholesale capture of India's institutional framework,” he said. Rahul alleged that they were "capturing votes" to capture institutions like universities and CBI, ED and Income Tax Department.

Another "capture" is related to the institution that "directly controls the elections, that is the EC. I am not saying without proof. There is adequate proof that the EC is colluding with those in power to shape elections. I want to ask three questions which will make it very clear that the BJP is directing and using the Election Commission to damage India's democracy," he said.

He went on to ask why the Chief Justice of India was removed from the selection panel choosing the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners.

"Why is he not in that room? I sit in that room. It is so-called a democratic decision. On one side, PM Modi and Amit Shah. On the other side, the LoP. I have no voice in that room. What they decide is what happens. So the first question, why is the PM and Amit Shah so keen on choosing exactly who the Election Commissioner is going to be?" he said.

Referring to the change in law that no Election Commissioner could be punished for any action they take while in office, he said, "No Prime Minister has done this in the history of India...Why would the Prime Minister and Home Minister give this gift of immunity to the Election Commissioner?" He also asked why a law was put in place that allows the Election Commission to destroy CCTV footage 45 days after the election.

"What is the need? The answer given is that it is a question of data. It is not a question of data. It is a question of stealing the election,” he said, adding that the election schedule is tailored to the Prime Minister’s schedule of campaigning.

He also referred to the photo of a Brazilian woman appearing in the Haryana electoral rolls as well as one woman's details appearing over 200 times and BJP leaders in UP managing to vote in Haryana. He claimed the EC has not answered such questions.

On Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, he said 1.2 lakh duplicate voters are still existing and why it is so if they had cleaned up the voter list.