It looks as if the clouds of trouble won’t move away anytime soon for the Congress. In another tussle between democratic institutions and the Congress party, the Election Commission of India has accused the Congress party of using forged papers in order to undermine the credibility of the EC with respect to the issue of bogus voters in the electoral rolls of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
Responding to the queries posed by the bench comprising Justice A K Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan, the counsel for EC, Vikas Singh told that EC received a representation from Congress about bogus voters on 3rd June, to which they had duly replied about the rectification by 8 June. Vikas Singh added, “On July 31, the draft electoral roll was published and necessary corrections were made as the software employed detects similarity between two voters for the officials to take necessary action after ground level verification…
…Despite the list being corrected, Congress continues to peddle mistakes in earlier lists and attempts to discredit a statutory organization which has earned impeccable reputation for conducting free and fair elections. This is nothing but using forged documents to scandalize the EC”, the counsel further added.
Now this admission left the Congress advocates red faced, and in a vain attempt to counter question the counsel, they alleged that one photograph was used for at least 36 voters on an average, and thus a CBI inquiry was necessary. Advocate for Congress and ex Cabinet Minister Kapil Sibal also added a sly taunt to EC, asking as to ‘whom they’re working for.’
It was then that the EC counsel had had it enough. He shot back, saying, “The allegations should be taken to a logical end. Let there be an enquiry. If EC officials are found guilty, let them be punished. But if the petitioners are found to have made wrong charges, they should also face prosecution.”
This is not the first time that Congress has resorted to such cheap gimmicks, and EC is certainly not their first victim. Congress has a known history of undermining democratic institutions if they don’t kowtow to their set ideals. Armed forces, Police, judiciary, Election Commission, even media, you name it and they’ve humiliated them.
We don’t need to be experts to know what happened with Justice H R Khanna, when he refused to kowtow to Indira Gandhi, or more recently with retired Chief Justice Dipak Misra, who was hounded on allegations that looked more like political vendetta than accusations with any shred of merit. As such, even though atrocious, the rhetoric exercised by Congress is not at all surprising. However, EC needs a wild applause for not submitting to their antics and boldly facing them in the court of law.
With this incident, Congress seems to be only digging their grave further deep before the 2019 elections. Unless they act quick and redeem their past blunders, it is unlikely that they can even win some face saving seats, forget winning the elections altogether.