‘Unfortunate That Rahul Is Targeting Election Commission For Political Gains’

Prof Amar Bahadur Shukla from Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University says Rahul Gandhi must show a conclusive proof of vote theft instead of repeatedly targeting the ECI. His views:

The Election Commission of India is a constitutional body and an autonomous authority under Article 324 of the Indian Constitution, which is delegated to hold free and fair elections at various levels elections in the country. If a political party, in this case the Indian National Congress and its allies, allege that it is acting in a partisan manner and indulging in “vote theft”, then it is a serious matter of concern.

However, in spite of repeated allegations at multiple public platforms, Rahul Gandhi as the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, has not provided any conclusive proof for the charges levelled at the Election Commission.

With the entire fiasco of the alleged vote theft, some of the political parties are referring to the so called illegal or fraudulent practices used to manipulate election results, undermining the democracy at large while trying to prevent the true will of the people from being represented. And as the general public (read the voters) are so well informed thanks to the social media, the entire ruckus, started in the parliament (in both the houses) with allegations and criticism of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar, only appears to be a step to confuse people.

The ECI, however, also took confronting steps and even, in a way, challenged the so called ‘protesters and saviours’ of democracy by holding an open press conference and rejected all the allegations. Despite a stern warning by the ECI, to submit an affidavit with proof or produce a written apology in front of the nation no one turned up till now. So, when the ECI claims its stand for its neutrality and impartiality toward the people of the country, why is no one coming up with justifications is a question equally looming in the minds of the voters and the ‘deleted’ voters.

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Besides this, the ECI has been working round the clock providing facts and data about the recently concluded SIR in Bihar and according to the statistics available widely in the media, over 90 per cent of the cross checking of the legal votes and substantiating legal documents (for the genuine votes) has been completed. This clearly squares off the matter that only fake or wrong names have been removed from the voter list and it is also not true that only the poor are being struck off. People have been given enough time to submit proper documents and prove that their names were wrongly deleted.

Therefore it can be said that this matter is completely political and it is very unfortunate that legal and constitutional institutions like the ECI are being questioned, defamed and, in a way, hurdles are being created to stop it from working and producing before the upcoming Bihar elections.

If ‘Vote Chori’ was a genuine concern, would it not be raised in the Himachal Pradesh and Telangana elections by the ruling government? Or was it, just as claimed by the opposition parties, a bait to make them forget the process in the bigger elections like the Lok Sabha of the 2024?

Here the role of the media is very important to be neutral and provide impartial information to the people so that confusions can be eradicated. The whole debate will certainly have an impact in the Bihar elections – positively or negatively, specially for BJP but vote theft is not a big issue here because there are more issues in Bihar like unemployment, poverty, lack of quality education, insufficient health infrastructure and mechanisms. This unnecessary debate is becoming a crucial issue in the political sphere of Bihar that needs to be addressed and all political parties should focus on more genuine issues related to the common people instead of confusing them.

At told to Rajat Sharma