Bengaluru, Oct 11 (PTI) Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday said he and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi would meet the CJI on October 12 to raise concerns over alleged suppression of democratic rights, police action against protesters and irregularities in the Election Commission.
He accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah of creating a situation akin to an “undeclared Emergency” in the country.
Speaking to reporters, Kharge said he had written a letter to the CJI, as had Gandhi, and they had been given a time slot between 4 pm and 5 pm on Monday for the meeting.
“We cannot demand anything before him (Surya Kant). We will request him with folded hands to keep these issues in mind,” Kharge said.
Claiming that Modi is scared of youth who are demanding “save democracy and save our votes”, Kharge accused the PM and his government of “suppressing” citizens’ rights, and asserted that the Congress would continue to fight to protect the Constitution, democracy and people’s right to vote.
He alleged that the government was using the police to prevent people from participating in protests and pursuing their genuine demands, causing hardship to youths who wanted to travel for jobs, appointments, schools and colleges.
Kharge also referred to an unprecedented security clampdown and the detention of CJP protesters to thwart a planned mass mobilisation at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on Saturday to press for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
“Yesterday, nearly 32,000 police personnel and 7,500 CRPF personnel were deployed. This itself shows how much fear the government has of the youth agitation. As I have already stated, roads were blocked, communication channels were disrupted, access to the airport was restricted, and mobile networks were shut down. All this demonstrates that he does not want democracy to function peacefully in India,” he said, taking a dig at PM Modi.
“We will continue our fight to protect democracy and the constitutional rights of the people,” he added.
Noting that the Election Commission is a constitutional body, Kharge said it is an independent institution with the authority to make decisions independently. However, it is not allowed to make decisions independently.
“Two members of the Election Commission have openly exposed how the Commission is functioning, what kind of irregularities are taking place in it, and what the members of the Commission themselves feel about this situation. Despite this, no action has been taken in this matter,” he claimed.
“All of this is happening because they (PM and BJP government) want vote theft to continue. So far, whatever vote theft has occurred, they have been used to form governments at the Centre and in the states,” he alleged.
Claiming that to create such an environment, Modi enacted a law in 2023, through which the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners were given legal immunity, Kharge said they were granted such immunity that is not even available to the President of India or the Chief Justice of the country.
“Why was this special protection given to an Election Commissioner? After providing this protection, the entire process of vote theft, EVM manipulation, and electoral fraud was set in motion. No matter how many mistakes the CEC makes, they have been granted lifelong immunity from accountability for those mistakes,” he said.
“This directly means that it is a conspiracy to steal the public’s votes and commit fraud against democracy. This is exactly what is being done, and we will continue our fight against it,” he added. PTI KSU KH
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