New Delhi, Aug 2 (PTI) The Congress on Saturday made a fervent call for protecting the Constitution and democracy with its top leadership urging all to unite and “help save” the country from the BJP.
Setting the tone at the inaugural of day-long legal conclave on ‘Constitutional Challenges: Perspectives and Pathways’, party leader Rahul Gandhi said he will soon release an “atom bomb” of data that will send shockwaves through the election system, alleging that it is “already dead” and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were “rigged”.
He also claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi is sitting on his chair with a “thin majority” and had there been a difference of a few seats, he would have not been there. Gandhi further alleged that around 100 seats were “rigged” in the last election.
He cited data collected by the Congress from an assembly constituency in Karnataka, where the party checked the photographs and names of electors physically and reportedly found out that 1.5 lakh votes were “fake” out of a total of 6.5 lakh voters.
“You will see the shockwave that is going to go through the electoral system when we release this data. It is literally like an atom bomb,” he claimed.
“The truth is that the election system in India is already dead. Please remember one thing that the prime minister of India enjoys a very slim majority. If 10-15 seats were rigged, and we suspect the actual figures to be closer to 70-80 to 100, he would not have been the prime minister of the country,” the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha claimed.
“In the coming few days, we are going to prove to you without any doubt how a Lok Sabha election can be rigged, and it was rigged,” he alleged.
Gandhi will make public details of the “anomalies” in voter lists in the constituency in Karnataka on August 5 at Bengaluru’s Freedom park.
Sharpening his attack on the Election Commission, the former Congress chief said, “It’s very clear that the institution that protects this (Constitution), and defends it has been obliterated and taken over.” He also claimed the Congress had a document on the Rafale deal, that said clearly that the prime minister’s office and the NSA “interfered” in the Rafale deal and “damaged” the Rafale deal.
“This document itself would have brought down any government in any country of the world. Nothing happened. You know where the document went, you know where the document died,” he said.
He said he is fighting 30 cases and anyone who fights the regime, any political person, NGOs, civil society knows the moment they oppose, they will be attacked.
“I know I’m playing with fire, and I’ll continue to play with fire. I am not scared of playing with fire…Eventually, like most of you, I am going to end up in the fire.” “My family taught me not to be scared of cowards. The most cowardly thing you can ever do is to be scared of a coward. And that’s exactly what we’re dealing with. The ruling ideology is based to a great extent on cowardice,” Gandhi claimed recalling his conversation with his sister.
He also suggested like every hospital has a blood bank, they set up legal banks in every constituency with lawyers giving legal time to defend the Constitution and democracy.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge alleged the EC has become a “puppet” of Modi.
The Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha also accused Modi of seeking to divide society and said he chose to be on a “maun vrat” (vow of silence) on important issues during the auspicious month of Shravan.
Claiming that 65 lakh voters were being disenfranchised in Bihar under the special intensive revision of electoral rolls, he said the EC “wants to take away” the voting rights of all the poor and marginalised and minorities, who would otherwise vote for the Congress as they were “fed up” with the BJP rule.
Alleging voters were “changed” in the Maharashtra assembly elections and Lok Sabha elections, he asked, “How can there be nine voters in a small room and nine thousand voters in a single hostel in Maharashtra? Kharge also accused Modi of trying to polarise society with his statements during the elections.
“He always talks about chicken, Mughals, Mangal-sutra in elections and he always talks about dividing the society. The people of the country chose him and elected him to protect the Constitution, but he is working to crush it.
“If anyone is crushing the Constitution, it is the prime minister and the BJP,” he alleged.
Kharge claimed that when Jagdeep Dhankhar allowed a notice for the opposition’s motion to remove Justice Yashwant Varma, he was “threatened and pressured” by the government.
Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi alleged the Constitution is “under siege” as the BJP is using its power to dismantle the very framework it long opposed.
She alleged the BJP is seeking to bring an “ideological coup” by replacing our democratic republic with a theocratic corporate state serving the powerful few.
Senior Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi accused the BJP of converting democracy into dominance and its plurality into polarity, as he vowed to not allow India to become a nation of one voice, one party, and one ideology.
In his concluding remarks, he said the struggle before us is not just electoral, but existential. “It is not about changing a government, it is about saving a Republic.” “This is not merely a political battle, but is for the soul of India.” “We rose in 1947, in 1980, in 2004 and therefore our rise is inevitable. But this time we will not rise just to defeat a regime, we will rise to revive a republic, we will rise to defend the dignity of every Indian…” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, his deputy DK Shivakumar, Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu besides, former chief ministers Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Sushilkumar Shinde also spoke. PTI SKC ZMN
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