Faceoff between Shah and Rahul Gandhi as He Counters All “Vote Chori” Charges by Congress

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Dec 10: The Union home minister Amit Shah and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi clashed in the House on Wednesday during the debate on electoral reforms with particular reference to “Special Intensive Revision” of the voters’ list.

Tensions escalated when Gandhi interrupted Shah’s address, saying, “I challenge you to have debate on my press conferences.”

As the Congress MP dared the minister to hold a debate on his press conference about alleged irregularities in voter lists, the BJP leader hit back, saying no one would dictate the order in which he would say things.

Attacking the opposition during his speech, Shah said they have been pointing out irregularities in existing voter lists and then also objecting to the “Special Intensive Revision” (SIR) which, he said, was aimed at updating the rolls and ensuring only eligible voters are part of them. “The voter lists are absolutely fine when you win, you wear new clothes and take oath. But when you fall flat, like in Bihar, you say there is a problem with the voter list… These double standards will not fly,” he jeered.

Taking a dig at Rahul Gandhi’s press conferences on voter lists, one of which was dubbed a “Hydrogen Bomb,” Shah said the Leader of the Opposition spoke about ‘vote chori’ (vote theft) when some families – a clear reference to the Nehru-Gandhi family – were “generational vote chors.”

At this point, Gandhi interjected and asked Shah to reply first on why Election Commissioners had been granted immunity for any action taken while in office. Alleging that the Home minister had cherry picked certain examples from his press conferences, Gandhi threw down a dare: “Actually, let us have a debate on my press conference. Let us go. Amit Shah ji, I challenge you to have a debate on the three press conferences.”

An enraged Shah hit back: “I want to make something clear. I have been elected to legislative assemblies and the Parliament for 30 years. I have extensive experience. The Leader of the Opposition says he wants me to answer this or that question first. Let me make this clear to him: The Parliament will not work based on your wishes. I will decide the order in which I say things. He should be patient and hear my reply, I will answer everything. He will not decide the order of my speech.”

Shah also hit out at the Congress and Rahul Gandhi over the demand for returning to ballot paper system dumping the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) which the opposition alleged were tampered in favour of the BJP. The EVMs, he said, were introduced in the country by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and it is his son and his party now that oppose them.

In a blistering counter to Opposition allegations on EVMs, Shah pointed out that it was also the Congress which won the first election held through EVMS. This was in 2004 when Manmohan Singh became the Prime Minister. Ten years later, “when we won in 2014, they (the Congress) raised doubts,” he added. His comments were in response to Rahul Gandhi’s no-holds barred attack of Tuesday.

This came after Shah responded to Congress leader’s allegations of voter list manipulation during his presser, saying the claims were unfounded and had already been clarified by the Election Commission. He said that the Leader of Opposition had said “in a press conference on November 5 he had dropped an ‘atomic bomb’ — and in that so-called bomb he claimed that 501 votes were registered at a single house in Haryana.”

Shah said the Election Commission’s explanation made clear there was nothing irregular about the address in question. “The Election Commission has clarified that house number 265 is not a small house but a one-acre ancestral plot where several families live. However, each family has not been given a separate house number, which is why the same house number appears everywhere. And multiple generations of one family live together. This numbering system has been the same since the time a Congress government was elected in Haryana. This is not a fake house.”

Wednesday marked the second day of the Lower House debate on electoral reforms, coming after the Opposition repeatedly pressed for a discussion on SIR, a demand the government had initially resisted. The standoff ended when both sides agreed to take up electoral reforms after concluding the debate on Vande Mataram.

Both Houses have set aside a total of 10 hours for the electoral reforms discussion.

Shah alleged ‘vote chori’ actually happens when the people’s mandate was defied. Tearing into the Gandhi-Nehru family, Shah alleged the first instance of ‘vote chori’ happened when the first Prime Minister of Independent India was decided. He said the heads of Congress units of the provinces at the time were supposed to get one vote each. “So, 28 votes went to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and two were cast in favour of Jawaharlal Nehru. But Nehru ji ended up being the Prime Minister,” he said, prompting an uproar in the Opposition benches.

Another example of ‘vote chori‘, he alleged, was when Indira Gandhi won from Raibareli, and the election was contested in the Allahabad High Court. The court, he said, struck down the election. “This was a big vote chori. And what happened then? To hide the vote chori, she brought in a law that no case can be filed against the Prime Minister. The Leader of the Opposition talks of immunity to Election Commissioners, and I will respond, but what does he have to say about this? She gave herself immunity,” the minister said.

“She then bypassed the judges in terms of seniority, picked the one who was fourth as Chief Justice and then won the case in the Supreme Court. This is history, no one teaches them this, it seems,” he added. Taking aim at Rahul Gandhi’s mother and former Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, he pointed out that a case has been filed in court alleging that she voted before becoming a citizen of the country. “I have just stated a fact,” he said as Congress MPs objected and said there was no substance in the allegation.

Shah went on to counter Rahul Gandhi, the Congress and the Opposition’s objections to the use of Electronic Voter Machines (EVMs) and said their real agenda behind the objection to the SIR was to ensure illegal immigrants remain a part of the voter lists.

This prompted a walkout by the Opposition. Asked about the reason for the walkout, Gandhi said outside Parliament, “The Home minister’s response was defensive and he did not respond to the points we had raised. He did not speak about transparent voter lists, clarity on EVM architecture or the solid proof I had presented in my press conferences.”