Vote chori biggest anti-national act, BJP indulging in it in collusion with EC: Rahul

New Delhi: In a no-holds-barred attack in the Lok Sabha, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accused the BJP of indulging in the "biggest anti-national act" by committing "vote chori" in collusion with the Election Commission and destroying the idea of India.

Gandhi posed three questions which he claimed make it clear that the BJP is "directing and using" the Election Commission to damage India's democracy.

Participating in a discussion on election reforms in the Lower House, the Leader of Opposition asked why is it that the chief justice of India was removed from selection panel for the appointment of the chief election commissioner and the election commissioners.

Why is Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah so keen on who exactly the election commissioner is going to be, Gandhi said.

"No prime minister has done this in history of India that on December 2023, this government changed the law to make sure no election commissioner is punished for any action they take while they are election commissioner," he said.

Why did the prime minister and the home minister give this gift of immunity," Gandhi asked.

He further questioned as to why the law was changed to allow destruction of CCTV footage after 45 days.

Gandhi alleged that the consequence of these actions was that a set of election campaigns are tailored for the PM and "a Brazilian woman" appears 22 times on the voters' list of Haryana.

The election of Haryana was stolen and theft was ensured by the Election Commission of India, he said.

Gandhi claimed that the Election Commission does not want to undertake poll reform as it was easy if it wanted to.

Making suggestions, Gandhi said, "Give machine readable voter list to all parties one month before elections, take back the law that allows destruction of CCTV footage after 45 days, tell us what is architecture of EVMs, give us access to the EVMs, and finally change the law that allow the election commissioners to get away with what ever he wants to do."

"They (the election commissioners) are under impression that this law will allow them to get away but that is not the case as we will change the law and do it retroactively," the former Congress president said.

He also asserted that India is not just the biggest democracy but the greatest democracy.

"The biggest anti-national act you can do is vote 'chori'. Because when you destroy the vote, you destroy the fabric of this country, you destroy modern India, you destroy the idea of India. Those across the aisle are doing an anti-national act," Gandhi said, gesturing towards the treasury benches.

In his remarks, Gandhi recalled that on January 30, 1948, three bullets pierced the chest of Mahatma Gandhi and Nathuram Godse assassinated the "father of our nation".

"Today, our friends (in the BJP) don't embrace him and push him away, as he is an uncomfortable truth. But that's not where the project ended. Everything, all the institutions, have emerged from the vote, so it's obvious that the RSS has to capture all the institutions that have emerged from the vote," he said.

After Gandhiji's assassination, the next step of the project was the "wholesale capture" of India's institutional framework, he alleged.