Allegations of Political Executive Silence and Mandate Scrutiny
Evaluating Performance and Accountability in Congress-Ruled States
Institutional Neutrality
The ruling BJP has been supporting Gyanesh Kumar and the Election Commission of India (ECI) without any hesitation. The fact that more than 13 crores votes have been removed from Electoral rolls does not seem to bother the BJP. Union Home Minister Amit Shah told the BJP crowd in Hyderabad on Monday that three crores of foreign nationals (guspetia) were identified and their names were removed from voters’ list. He does not show any evidence. The ECI keeps quiet. The RTI has no information. The BJP spokespersons ridicule Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi that he can never become a prime minister.
Opposition Unity Over Concerns Surrounding the ECI
The Congress-led opposition rally at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi on Sunday was a significant moment in the protests against the ECI’s behavior in conduction of the Special Investigative Revision (SIR) of voters’ list. It is an attempt to reclaim the public space which has been occupied by the BJP with its series of electoral wins and more than 12 years of despotic rule. The BJP has been questioning the number of people that attended the rally. The godi media never showed the actual crowds. One has to see Ravish Kumar official or any of the social media to know the kind of gathering that assembled at Ramlila Maidan.
The entire opposition was united in questioning the ECI since every opposition party has suffered at the hands of Gyanesh Kumar. The DMK and AAP did not join the Sunday rally but they questioned the role played by the ECI in SIR and the way the recent elections were cpnducted as vehemently as the Congress. BJD, BRS and the YSRCP, non-NDA parties, have also been opposing the SIR. The Sakshi and Namaste Telangana, the mouth pieces of Jagan Mohan Reddy and Chandrasekhar Rao have been publishing news critical of the NDA and the ECI.
Civil Society Participation and the People’s Opposition
As Rahul Gandhi said it is not a protest by political parties. It is a condemnation of ECI by the people of India. Beside the opposition parties a large number of civil society organization participated in the rally as well as the mock parliament which impeached Gyanesh Kumar. Even the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) supported the rally. The CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke met former chief minister of West Bengal and chief of Trinamool Congress Mamata Banerjee and assued his party’s support who ever fights the irregularities by ECI and SIR. There are farmer organizations and other civil society groups. In the course of more than 12 years of rule the NDA government has antagonized many people with its partisan and arrogant politics.
The RSS chief Mohan Bhagawat, with his devastating remarks against the youth of the country in his Vijayadasami oration, has not helped the BJP he was trying to support. When Rahul Gandhi talked about vote chori not many people supported him. With Dhruv Rathee coming to Bengaluru, going to Delhi and visiting London on his way to his home in Germany giving publicity to the irregularities in Indian elections, many of his millions of admirers are aware of vote chori now. Rahul’s stock has gone up because whatever he was talking since last year has come true. Part of the mainstream media has taken queue from the Indian Express whose correspondent Nikita Chopra had done a wonderful job in exposing the ECI. Newspapers like The Hindu and Dainik Bhaskar have started publishing investigative stories. The public impeachment of Gyanesh Kumar has become a very popular move. When the opposition was not permitted to move a motion of impeachment in the parliament and no debate is allowed, what can the opposition do?
Use of Preventive Peace Bonds and Dissent Resistance
The prime minister has not uttered a word about the ECI shenanigans for more than a year. Only some of the ministers and the BJP spokesperson answer all the questions put to the ECI and in the process ridicule the opposition leaders. The have said whatever they liked so far and got away because the general public did not take cognizance of vote chori. Now a large number of people know that manipulation in the voters’ list took place and Modi and Shah were behind the sinister exercise. Not only the ECI and NDA government at the centre are unpopular but also the governments formed in Haryana, Maharashtra, Bihar and West Bengal are also looked at suspiciously since all of them were formed as a result of the elections in which vote chori took place.
A peace bond is one of the tactics adopted by the Modi government in its rule of suppression and intimidation. The CJP leaders had innocently signed the bond and they were repeatedly questioned by the court as to why they violated the bond. Neha Bora, the AISA president, has refused to sign the bond. The judiciary has to correct it’s course and stop supporting the government.
Debating Election Boycotts and Democratic Participation
There are people who suggest that the opposition parties have to boycott the elections. They ask, what is the point in legitimizing the elections by participating knowing full well that they are thoroughly manipulated? BJP will win for the fourth time. However, the counter to this question is, ‘what if the BJP brazens it out and blames the opposition that it boycotted elections since it is habituated to lose. It was only CJI’s Abhijeet Dipke who articulated this point which needs further debate and examination. Unless the ECI is refreshed and all the democratic institutions return to democratic ways, boycotting the elections is the ultimate protest. This aspect has to be debated by one and all.
The Congress has to see how its governments in states where it is in power are performing. Are they any better than the BJP-ruled states? Or are they as corrupt and as inefficient as the BJP states? The four states under the Congress rule have to show an alternative way of rule and administration. Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi have to sit with the four chief minister and conduct a serious and a thorough review.
Prominent Journalist
Dr. K. Ramachandra Murthy is a versatile journalist with a distinguished career. Dr. Murthy began his extensive career with Andhra Prabha of The Indian Express group in Bengaluru. He was editor of Udayam, Vaartha and Andhra Jyothy. Dr. Murthy founded and edited HMTV news channel and The Hans India, an English newspaper. He was also editorial director of the Telugu newspaper, Saakshi. He was awarded Ph. D for his research work in rural reporting. Dr. Murthy’s five decades in journalism showcases his influential roles across both print and electronic media. He wrote the political biography of NTR published by Harper Collins.
Email: murthykondubhatla@gmail.com
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