New Delhi [India], July 3 : The Congress Party on Thursday criticised the Election Commission of India (ECI) for being "unabashedly partisan" by acting like the middleman for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
According to a release, the party charged that the Special Intensive Review of electoral rolls in Bihar ahead of the elections was aimed at disenfranchising about two crore voters who may not be able to furnish the documents the Commission is seeking.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here today, senior party leaders including Chairman of the Media and Publicity Department Pawan Khera, Bihar Congress president Rajesh Kumar and the AICC in-charge for Bihar Krishna Allavaru stated that the role of the Commission had come under strong suspicion and any shred of credibility that had been left has also gone away.
Pawan Khera observed that the 'SIR' was a clear conspiracy to disenfranchise the Bihar voters and deny them their basic right to vote. He noted that the ECI was acting like the puppet of the BJP government.
Khera took strong exception to the way the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, dealt with a delegation of eleven parties belonging to the INDIA bloc. He told the CEC that he should leave a better legacy for the future lest his name be dumped in the dustbin of history.
"The way ECI is being run poses a serious threat to democracy - not just against the Opposition, but against each and every voter", the senior Congress leader warned, while pointing out that the Constitution defines everybody's limits, and no one, including the Commission, should try to breach those limits, as per the release.
"With all humility at my command, I warn the ECI that governments come and go. Why are you being so servile to them? It would be better if you followed the Constitution", he told the Commission, while remarking, "so many 'shahs' and 'shahanshahs' came and went away".
He also took a dig at the CEC for feeding the media with his WhatsApp messages, trying to plant stories attributed to 'sources'.
Suspecting the motive and intention of the ECI behind this exercise, Bihar PCC president Rajesh Kumar observed that it was a clear attempt to snatch away the basic voting right of the Bihar voters.
He pointed out that there will be practical difficulties in carrying out the Special Intensive Review of the electoral rolls in just one month, as the government does not have adequate resources, particularly the manpower to do that.
He noted that the CEC had said that the Commission expects around 20 per cent of voters in Bihar to be disenfranchised. He said, it's the poor and marginalised people who will be most affected by this exercise, as they are unlikely to be able to furnish the required documents, particularly their own and their parents' birth certificates.
Bihar PCC president pointed out that while the government has been accepting the 'Aadhaar' card as proof of identity for almost everything and everywhere, it is beyond comprehension why it is not being accepted for electoral purposes.
The Bihar Congress president said that the immediate reason for the exercise to disenfranchise about two crore voters was the growing popularity of the Congress and its leader, Rahul Gandhi, in Bihar. He disclosed that a survey had been carried out, which showed that the Congress party enjoyed significant popularity. This, he said, unnerved the BJP, and it launched this exercise to disenfranchise the voters in Bihar.
Speaking on the occasion, Krishna Allavaru said that the Special Intensive Review of the electoral rolls was yet another "arbitrary decision" of the Modi government being imposed on people.
"First it was the demonetisation, then the GST, followed by an unannounced lockdown, the acceptance of a ceasefire when our defence forces had an upper hand over Pakistan, and now this was the fifth arbitrary decision to carry out an exercise of such a magnitude within a month in Bihar," Allavaru said, as per the release.
Allavaru challenged the Prime Minister, the Union Home Minister, and all three Election Commissioners to present a single example anywhere in the world of such a humongous exercise of reviewing eight crore voters within just one month.
He pointed out that the voters among these eight crores had cast their votes just a year ago in the General Election. He asked, 'What has changed within a year that the Election Commission has decided to conduct a Special Intensive Revision arbitrarily, requiring people to furnish documents within just one month?'
The senior Congress leader asked why the Election Commission has refused to acknowledge the most conveniently available and widely accepted proofs of identity like the Aadhaar card, voter ID, ration card, job card or the driving licence.
"The poor people of Bihar, the youth and the marginalised sections will be made to suffer by being asked to produce their birth certificates as well as those of their parents", he noted, while asking, "Is this a joke?"