New Delhi : Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday called Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar a “puppet” of the Narendra Modi government and said he had “no right to remain in office”. In his opening remarks while chairing the Congress Working Committee (CWC), Kharge listed out five demands, of which he demanded that data on major changes to voter lists be made public.
He also called for independent, time-bound investigations into serious discrepancies and greater transparency in election-related data and decisions. Kharge also demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s resignation on moral grounds for “pressuring” the CEC. “Under these circumstances, he (Gyanesh Kumar) has no right to remain in office and should be removed immediately. Furthermore, the Prime Minister, under whose pressure he acted in this manner, should himself resign on moral grounds,” he said.
The Congress chief said the poor bear the brunt of all the “flawed policies” of the PM. He said the vote is the most powerful weapon for the poor, Dalits, the underprivileged, and the exploited sections of society. “That is why Modi ji wants to take away this right, but we will not allow that to happen,” he stressed. “History bears witness that ten years ago, this very prime minister devastated India’s economy with the decision of ‘Notebandi (demonetisation)’.
Chief ministers of four Congress-ruled states – DK Shivakumar (Karnataka), VD Satheesan (Keralam), Revanth Reddy (Telangana) and Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu (Himachal Pradesh) – also participated in the meeting. Kharge said the Congress viewed the SIR issue as a larger democratic battle, rather than merely a contest to win or lose elections. “Elections come and go, and governments change, but democracy and the Constitution are enduring.
This is the foundation of Indian democracy. We must convey to every citizen that in a democracy, the most powerful person is the ordinary voter – not the prime minister, the chief minister or a leader in power,” he said. He said the Congress would continue to defend this principle and discharge its democratic responsibility. “This is the spirit of the Constitution; this is the soul of democracy.
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