Amit Shah Blames Congress Management for Electoral Defeats, Citing Nehru and Gandhi’s Legacy

Responding to Rahul Gandhi’s “vote chori” allegations, he recalled that earlier than Jawaharlal Nehru grew to become Prime Minister, the votes from the states favoured Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel because the president of Congress. But, Nehru, he mentioned, rose to the highest by “vote chori”, finally changing into the PM.

And referring to the Allahabad Excessive Courtroom ruling that Indira Gandhi’s 1971 victory over Raj Narain in Rae Bareli was secured by unfair means, Shah mentioned this was one other occasion of “vote chori”.

“To cowl it, a legislation was introduced that there might be no case towards the PM. You’re asking about immunity to the EC, however what in regards to the immunity Mrs Gandhi gave to herself?” he requested.

He mentioned there was a case pending towards Sonia Gandhi in a Delhi courtroom that she grew to become a voter earlier than changing into a citizen. He mentioned it was for the courtroom to determine and he was simply stating details.

Shah mentioned if the Opposition opposed the SIR train, it will lose even West Bengal and Tamil Nadu similar to it misplaced Bihar. Countering the Opposition comment that the EC was not the authority to determine who was a citizen, he mentioned the EC was charged with the conduct of elections, whose eligibility situations have been determined by Articles 326 and 327 of the Structure.

“Article 326 is essential for SIR, because it decides who’re eligible voters. The voter have to be a citizen of India. They ask why EC is doing it? As a result of it’s its accountability… In Article 327, voter lists are mentioned,” he mentioned.

Shah recalled that SIRs have been held with out objection in 1952, 1957 and 1961 when Nehru was PM; in 1965-66 when Lal Bahadur Shastri was PM; in 1983-84 when Indira Gandhi was PM; in 1987-89 when Rajiv Gandhi was PM; in 1993-95 when Narasimha Rao was PM, and between 2002 and 2004, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee after which Manmohan Singh have been PM.

“Till 2004, no celebration opposed it, as it’s for retaining polls clear and democracy wholesome. Periodic revisions are essential, so the EC selected it,” he mentioned. “In 2010, an Election Commissioner determined {that a} returning officer can’t delete names. After that, if somebody died, migrated, or an officer was transferred, the title was not deleted. At the moment the Congress was in energy. So, the above sorts of names ought to be deleted, and overseas nationals’ names ought to be recognized and deleted. Will infiltrators determine who might be PM or CM?”

He referred to the 1995 Lal Babu Hussein case during which the Supreme Courtroom dominated that the returning officer can examine whether or not an individual is an Indian citizen or not.

Taking a swipe at Rahul Gandhi over his press conferences alleging “vote chori”, Shah mentioned {that a} Haryana home which the Congress chief claimed had 501 voters was really a one-acre plot the place a number of households over 2-3 generations have been dwelling, and the tackle was the identical when the Congress final received Haryana.

He mentioned the voters that Gandhi had claimed had been disadvantaged of voting rights or had their age wrongly displayed had already clarified that there was no wrongdoing.

He mentioned the SIR was essential to scrub up voter lists as a result of non-deletion since 2010 had led to anomalies of 1 voter with a number of votes. He gave the examples of Pawan Khera of the Congress and Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD.

“We received 44 elections since 2014, they usually additionally received 30 elections in all. If the voter checklist is corrupt, why did you’re taking the oath?” Shah sought to know.

Gandhi requested him why he had not responded to the query on why authorized immunity was given to the EC. Shah mentioned the availability was the identical within the Illustration of the Folks Act, 1951.

“In RPA Act, 1951 itself, underneath clause 32, the ECI has immunity. We simply repeated it. The RPA Act itself says no lawsuit might be filed towards ECI officers for discharging their electoral duties,” he mentioned.

On why the CJI was not included within the panel to decide on the CEC, thereby rendering the LoP in a minority, he mentioned, “In 2023… the Supreme Courtroom advised that if the federal government is prepared, a committee underneath CJI ought to be shaped, with PM and LoP as members, to decide on the CEC. In 2023, a legislation was made, with the PM, a minister chosen by him, and the LoP as members of the panel.” He mentioned the Prime Minister instantly appointed the EC for many years underneath the Congress, and that Navin Chawla was appointed regardless of objections relating to his previous throughout the Emergency.

“You say you’ve 33% weightage. However you gave the Opposition no weightage in any respect. In case you can win elections, you’ll be on the aspect of 66% weightage,” he mentioned.

Concerning objections on EVMs, Shah mentioned Rajiv Gandhi had first launched them, and the Supreme Courtroom had upheld them. He underlined that they have been first used all through India in 2004, after which the Congress received two Lok Sabha elections in a row. However, he mentioned, they started to complain after 2014, when the BJP began successful, and selected to not settle for the EC’s problem to hack an EVM in 2017.

He referred to the VVPATs, saying that the EC determined that 5% outcomes of EVM and VVPATs could be in contrast. “In a pattern of 16000, not a single vote has been discovered invalid. And their polling brokers are there and likewise signal,” he mentioned. “Of their occasions, poll bins have been stolen. The EVM stopped it. They used to win due to the theft of poll bins. Now they’re uncovered.”

To Gandhi’s query on why a rule was made to delete CCTV footage 45 days after election outcomes, Shah mentioned that since 1991, candidates have been allowed to file an election petition inside 45 days.

“There was no CCTV footage then; it was later added by the ECI. All that the ECI has completed is to align it with the rule. The ECI had mentioned that CCTV footage is an inner association and never a constitutional provision. The rule says that any individual can transfer Supreme Courtroom to entry CCTV footage inside 45 days, and the courtroom can order that the footage not be destroyed. Even a political agent can get it from the Excessive Courtroom. If individuals begin randomly asking for footage in lakhs of cubicles, how will ECI operate?”

Because the Opposition walked out earlier than he accomplished his speech, Shah mentioned, “They didn’t run away when Nehru, Indira have been criticised by me, however ran away once I spoke about infiltrators. The nation has been partitioned as soon as, we don’t need one other Partition.”