Speaking on electoral reforms in Parliament, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday lashed out at the Centre, questioning the Narendra Modi government on why it was so intent on removing the Chief Justice of India from the panel in charge of selecting the poll body chief and other election commissioners. "Why was the CJI removed from the selection panel? Do we not believe in the CJI?" Rahul Gandhi asked.
Rahul Gandhi said that he is part of the selection panel as the Leader of the Opposition, but claimed he had no voice since he was outnumbered, with Prime Minister Modi on one side and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the other.
"Why was the CJI removed from the selection panel? What was the motivation? I have no voice in that room," he said.
Rahul Gandhi was referring to the 2023 law that replaced the Chief Justice of India (CJI) with a Union Cabinet Minister on the three-member selection panel that recommends appointments to the President, with the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition being the other two members.
Moving on to the next question, Rahul Gandhi asked why another law was passed to ensure that no Election Commissioner could be punished for actions taken in their official capacity.
He was referring to Clause 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, which grants protection to the poll body chief and the Election Commissioners from any action arising out of decisions taken while in office.
He then went on to ask what the result of controlling the poll body chief was, claiming that poll dates are tailored in a manner that suits the Prime Minister’s schedule.
After a string of allegations and presentations on voter fraud across states and the ensuing EC press conferences, Rahul Gandhi alleged in Parliament that none of his concerns had been addressed by the poll body. "Nowhere has the EC answered my questions," he claimed.
Highlighting examples of what he called discrepancies in voter rolls across states, Rahul Gandhi said, "This is how you are winning elections in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar. In Bihar alone, 1.2 lakh duplicate photos were found after the purification of voter rolls."
Listing three key suggestions to the poll body, Rahul Gandhi demanded that machine-readable voter lists be provided to all political parties one month before the elections.
He also called for rolling back the law that allows the destruction of CCTV footage.
