New Delhi: The INDIA bloc Saturday held a symbolic public impeachment of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleging that the right to vote was under threat as the poll panel was functioning at the behest of the Modi government.
The proceedings, presided over by former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, were held at the residence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. INDIA bloc leaders, MPs, civil society representatives and some of the individuals who alleged wrongful deletion of their names from electoral rolls attended the meeting, setting the tone for the Sunday rally by the opposition in the national capital to ramp up pressure for CEC Kumar’s removal.
Moving the motion, Kharge accused CEC Kumar of treason, as he read the charges against him, and demanded his removal, the repeal of the 2023 law governing the appointment of election commissioners and an end to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
The Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha alleged that Kumar was running the Election Commission at the direction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
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Today, the right to vote is under threat because CEC Gyanesh Kumar is running the Election Commission on the directions of Modi and Shah, Kharge said.
He said opposition MPs had moved proposals in both Houses of Parliament seeking the CEC’s removal, but their notices were rejected.
The proposal has been brought today to save the dignity of a constitutional body. We have no personal enmity with the CEC. We want the Election Commission to work impartially. No one should be allowed to wrongfully delete people’s votes while sitting in Delhi through a computer, he said.
The stage at the event was designed to resemble the Lok Sabha, with a wooden-panelled backdrop and seats arranged in a semi-circular formation similar to the seating arrangement in Parliament. Microphones were installed in the first three rows.
The programme, originally scheduled for Friday, was postponed by a day due to rain in the national capital.
Opening the proceedings, Meira Kumar said the meeting had been convened to hold a public impeachment of the CEC as eligible voters were being wrongfully removed from electoral rolls.
When this issue is raised by the INDIA bloc, there is no accountability. So we have decided that the INDIA bloc will hold a meeting and bring a proposal to remove Gyanesh Kumar, she said.
Kharge began his address by paying tributes to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on his birth anniversary and former prime minister Indira Gandhi on her death anniversary.
Recalling former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s decision to lower the voting age to 18 years, Kharge said the move had given young people the right to decide the country’s future. He alleged that the Modi government was now threatening that right through its actions.
The Modi government has done everything to remain in power — ‘Sansad chori’, ‘party chori’, electoral bonds and now ‘vote chori’, he alleged.
Kharge alleged that the CEC was able to carry out such actions because of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, which, he said, provided protection to the poll panel chief against any action.
He said the law was passed after 145 opposition MPs were suspended from Parliament, preventing them from participating in the proceedings.
This is shameful. Those who were working in national interest were kept out and the law was passed. This law gives the CEC impunity which even the president and prime minister do not have, he alleged.
Kharge said the opposition was not seeking voting rights for ghuspaithiya (infiltrators), but wanted to ensure that the voting rights of all Indian citizens were protected.
It is the BJP which is protecting ‘ghuspaithiya ‘, and the pot is telling the kettle black, he alleged.
Kharge alleged that the CEC was directly responsible for the SIR exercise and claimed it had resulted in the intentional deletion of around 14 crore voters from electoral rolls.
Kharge also accused Kumar of illegally amending Form 6 of the registration of electors without taking Parliament into confidence, thereby affecting the voting rights of young people.
He alleged that the CEC had illegally centralised control over electoral rolls and deliberately kept the other two Election Commissioners out of decision-making.
Accusing Kumar of breaching his constitutional mandate and betraying the trust of the people, Kharge said MPs of the INDIA bloc, representing 60 per cent of the population, had resolved that the CEC should be tried for treason in a court.
Article 326 gives universal adult franchise that is under serious threat, he said.
He demanded Kumar’s removal, repeal of the 2023 law and an end to the SIR exercise.
The BJP is trying to finish democracy in India, but we will not allow that to happen, he said.
The public impeachment is part of the opposition bloc’s campaign against alleged irregularities in the SIR exercise and its demand for accountability from the Election Commission. The bloc has also called for a rally at Ramlila Maidan Sunday under the banner of ‘Vote Bachao, Desh Bachao’.
