New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched a strong attack on the Congress and other opposition parties on December 9, accusing them of spreading lies about SIR, tarnishing image of India’s democracy and asserted that the Modi government “will not allow infiltrators to get voting rights”.
Replying to the debate on electoral reforms in the Lok Sabha, Amit Shah hit back at issues raised by opposition parties including Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi.
Amit Shah, who faced interruptions from Congress members over his remarks, said the government is ready to discuss all issues according to rules.
He said that Opposition wanted a discussion in the name of Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls or SIR, but such a discussion cannot take place in this House because the responsibility for Special Intensive Revision lies with the Election Commission, and the Commission does not work under the Government.
Amit Shah said that it had been decided to hold a discussion on electoral reforms, but most members of the Opposition spoke about SIR instead.
He said that for the past four months, one-sided lies have been spread about SIR, and attempts are being made to mislead the people of the country. He said that the Election Commission was constituted under the Articles of the Constitution and is, in a sense, a constitutional body.
The Constitution defines a voter’s eligibility, qualifications, and conditions for being a voter in Article 326. He said the first condition is that the voter must be a citizen of India and not a foreigner. He said that based on the three qualifications, a person’s eligibility to be an Indian voter is decided, and all three aspects must be examined by the Election Commission.
The Home Minister said that Article 327 empowers the Election Commission to recommend laws related to electoral rolls, delimitation, the conduct of elections, and other connected matters. Article 327 gives the Election Commission complete authority to prepare the electoral rolls according to this interpretation.
He said Special Intensive Revision has taken place several times in the past and it has been opposed for the first time.
He stated that periodic intensive revision of the electoral roll is necessary, and therefore, the Election Commission decided that it would be conducted in 2025.
Shah hit back at Rahul Gandhi over his allegations, “There are three criteria of vote theft. First, when there’s an invalid voter, second, when you win an election through wrong measures, third, when you defy the mandate. I would like to tell you about three incidents of voter chori. First, after independence, the country’s PM was to be elected…Sardar Patel got 28 votes, and Jawaharlal Nehru got two votes. But Jawaharlal Nehru became the Prime Minister,” he said.
“Indira Gandhi got elected from Rae Bareily, Raj Narain approached the Allahabad High Court that this election did not happen according to rules. HC decided that Indira Gandhi did not win the election appropriately and declared it void. This was also vote theft. They brought a bill in Parliament that no case can be registered against the PM,” he added.
He also referred to a court case in Delhi that Congress leader Sonia Gandhi “became a voter before becoming an Indian citizen”.
Amit Shah said that Congress’s defeat is “certain” and not because of a change in voter lists.
“In his press conference, the LoP levelled allegations that the voter list is not corrected and needs to be rectified. So, what is SIR? It is the procedure to sanitise the voter list. He is opposing even when we are undertaking the process. It doesn’t matter if the voter list is new or old, your defeat is certain; the voter list doesn’t have to do anything with it,” Shah said.
He said that the BJP never has to face anti-incumbency. “Anti-incumbency is only against those who work against the public interest. It is true that the BJP had to face anti-incumbency very rarely…But it is not as if we have never lost any election after 2014…Double standards won’t work in a democracy. When you win, EC is great. When you lose, EC is useless and works at BJP’s behest,” he added.
The Home Minister Shah said that a provision was introduced in 2010 that a person’s name cannot be struck off the electoral roll. He said that if intruders decide who will be the country’s Prime Minister or a state’s Chief Minister, can any country’s democracy remain secure?
Shah stated that a voter should not be able to vote in more than one place. He said that SIR is only the cleansing of the electoral roll, but it hurts the political interests of some parties. Shah said that foreigners should not be given the right to vote to elect this country’s Parliament or state legislatures.
He said that whether the electoral roll is old or new, a party’s defeat is not caused by the roll — it results from anti-incumbency faced by those who act against public interest.
Shah said that when we lose elections the Opposition does not oppose the electoral roll, but when there is a heavy defeat like in Bihar, they oppose the rolls.
He said that voter verification is a constitutional process, and by raising questions on this constitutional process and levelling baseless allegations, the opposition is working to tarnish the image of the Election Commission worldwide. By doing so, the opposition is also damaging the image of India’s democracy in the world.
Amit Shah said that since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister in May 2014, the opposition has had objections. He said that the NDA has won three Lok Sabha elections and 41 state assembly elections–that is, a total of 44 elections–while opposition parties have also won 30 assembly elections. If there is any irregularity in the voter list, then why did the opposition parties take oath after winning elections and why did they even contest them? He said the purification of the voter list is a demand of the opposition itself, and the Election Commission is doing exactly that.
He said when the argument of tampering with EVMs did not convince people, the opposition made “vote theft” an issue and launched a yatra across Bihar, but they still lost. He said that the reason for the opposition’s defeat is their own leadership, not EVMs or the voter list.
He said the opposition parties only make allegations but do not seek remedies and rules concerning EVMs and VVPATs are being followed.
The Home Minister said vote theft has ended due to EVMs. Shah said that Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister who has travelled the most in public contact since independence. He said that PM Modi has not taken a single day off since 2001 and continues to work tirelessly for the people. The Home Minister said that since the Narendra Modi government came to power in May 2014, the main opposition party has not given even a single suggestion to the Election Commission for electoral reforms. He said that it is the Modi government that included opposition leaders in the process of appointing Election Commissioners; earlier, only the Prime Minister used to decide this.
The Home Minister said that Section 81 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, provides that a candidate can file an election petition within 45 days of being elected, and after 45 days no one can challenge it. Shah said that the immunity granted to Election Commissioners under the Representation of the People Act, 1950, has not been increased at all by us. He said that the opposition’s real issue is to keep illegal infiltrators on the voter list. “Even if the opposition boycotts the House 200 times, we will not allow even a single illegal infiltrator to vote in the country.” The Home Minister said “the government’s policy is to Detect, Delete, and Deport, and we will carry out this work through constitutional processes”.
He alleged that opposition’s policy is to first normalise the infiltrators, grant them recognition, and then formalise them by adding them to the voter list. He said change in demographics poses a very big danger to the country. “This country has already been divided once on the basis of demographics, and we do not want future generations to witness another partition of this country,” he said.
Referring to walk out by opposition parties, Amit Shah said “even if the opposition boycotts the House 200 times, we will not grant voting rights to even a single infiltrator”.
Union Home Minister said that the ideology of the RSS is to die for the country, take the nation to the pinnacle of prosperity, and raise the flag of Indian culture high.
Amit Shah said that the opposition alliance has moved an impeachment motion against a judge who granted Hindus the right to worship–the people of the country will never forgive them for this. (With inputs from ANI)
