CPR for VP : Non-controversial and Respected
The stage is now set for a direct contest between NDA candidate Maharashtra Governor C. P. Radhakrishnan and opposition bloc candidate former Supreme Court judge B. Sudarshan Reddy for the Vice President election scheduled for September 9.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has been assigned the task to contact opposition leaders to agree on Radhakrishnan’s candidature, but on Tuesday Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge announced that the opposition bloc has “unanimously” agreed on the name of former SC judge B. Sudarshan Reddy.
The opposition is trying to queer the pitch for NDA ally Telugu Desam Party, because Reddy hails from undivided Andhra Pradesh. But on Tuesday afternoon, TDP supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu’s son and minister Nara Lokesh tweeted: “No ambiguity – only warmth, respect, and resolve. The NDA stands united.”
On the other hand, Radhakrishnan hails from Tamil Nadu. He has been the state BJP chief in Tamil Nadu, but DMK is unwilling to support his candidature, despite its talk of Tamil pride.
As far as the numbers are concerned in the electorate that will elect the new Vice President, Radhakrishnan’s victory is almost certain. BJP and its allies command a clear majority, and it will be difficult for Congress and its allies in opposition bloc to oppose CPR’s candidature.
C.P. Radhakrishnan has a clean public life. He hails from a backward community of Tamil Nadu, and his caste has quite a good influence in Andhra Pradesh too. On the other hand, the Congress-led bloc’s opposition appears to be purely symbolic. With CPR as the NDA candidate, the opposition’s move may not be aggressive.
There is another aspect to CPR being selected as the NDA candidate. The top BJP leadership has now realized that it should entrust responsibility to its older leaders rather than carrying out failed experiments like giving constitutional posts to Jagdeep Dhankhar and Satyapal Malik. This idea is going to be reflected in more political appointments that are going to take place soon.
Don’t intimidate Election Commission
The opposition continues with its ‘halla bol’ (hyper aggressive) attitude against the Election Commission over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar.
On Monday, an idea was floated to move an impeachment motion in Parliament against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Earlier, the opposition had demanded that the CEC should before the media to clarify doubts about Bihar SIR. On Sunday, the CEC addressed a lengthy press conference and replied to all questions put by media persons. The opposition then changed its stance and is now exploring the path of impeachment against the CEC.
The opposition is targeting the CEC because the Election Commission had been consistently rebutting on its social media platform, all charges of “vote fraud” that are being made.
On Sunday, the CEC gave point-by-point replies to all questions raised by Rahul Gandhi at his power point presentation about alleged “vote fraud” in one assembly segment Mahadevpura of Bengaluru Central parliamentary constituency.
Though the CEC did not name Rahul Gandhi, he clearly said that the data that have been used to level “vote fraud” charges are not EC data.
Gyanesh Kumar clearly said that those who have levelled “vote fraud” charges must file affidavit within seven days or apologise before the nation. There is no third option, he added. If no affidavit is filed within seven days, it shall be presumed that all the allegations are baseless, the CEC said.
On Monday, leaders of opposition bloc addressed a joint conference and alleged that the CEC was “threatening” the opposition and “running away” from replying to the charges.
In Bihar, Rahul Gandhi continued with his Vote Adhikar Yatra, addressing rallies at different places. He warned the Election Commission that if there is change of regime ever at the Centre, the CEC and the two Election Commissioners will not be spared.
If you go through the timeline about the charges levelled at the EC, you can get a clear picture.
Rahul Gandhi levelled “vote theft” charges against the EC at his press conference last week, publicly called the EC “chor” (thief).
The Election Commission replied to charges in off-the-record briefings. The opposition then asked why the Election Commission is not coming out in the open and reply.
When the CEC came out and replied to charges before the media, the opposition started saying, the EC is speaking in the language of BJP.
I think, as the head of a constitutional body, Gyanesh Kumar patiently replied to all questions. He did not scold the media persons and did not name anybody as “Congress agent”. He replied to all queries in a dignified manner. As far as threat is concerned, for the last seven days, Rahul Gandhi had been threatening the Election Commission.
Did the skies fall, when Gyanesh Kumar said he has no other option but to demand either an affidavit or an apology within 7 days?
I think, no one should try to browbeat the Election Commission, nor should the EC try to intimidate any political party. If leaders have the right to level charges, then how can the Election Commission be deprived of its right to reply to charges?
“Right if we win, Wrong if we lose!”
Maha Vikas Aghadi parties are not ready to accept the recent electoral mandate in Maharashtra. MVA leaders are now planning anti-EVM protests to demand replacing Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) with ballots. NCP founder Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray met all defeated candidates on Wednesday and instructed them to file election petitions for matching EVM results with those of VVPATs. Plans are afoot to set up legal teams in the state and in Delhi.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has already demanded that all EVMs should be replaced with ballots, with BJP leaders accusing that the Congress is now desperate and should rather replace Rahul Gandhi as its leader. Congress leaders argue that in June this year, MVA had won 30 out of 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, but five months later, MVA won only 48 out of 288 assembly seats. How can this be possible, they ask.
Probably Congress leaders forgot that in June, 2019, BJP had won all 7 Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, but eight months later, BJP could win only eight out of a total 70 assembly seats in Delhi. If we go backwards, in 2014, BJP had won all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi by a huge margin, but a few months later, when assembly elections were held, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party registered a historic landslide win (67 out of 70 seats).
How voters can change their minds after such a short time gap can be illustrated from this year’s Lok Sabha results. BJP’s tally was 240 in this year’s Lok Sabha election. At that time, for the Congress, EVM was a boon. Nobody questioned about EVM battery, nor demanded matching with VVPAT results. Had BJP crossed the 300-mark, Congress would then have blamed its defeat on EVMs. Rahul Gandhi would, by now, have started his ‘Bring Ballots’ Padyatra.
Questions began to be raised after BJP’s victory in this year’s Haryana assembly election. Questions were raised about EVM batteries that were displaying 99 per cent charging. The Election Commission responded with a 1,500-page long reply. When questions were raised about VVPATs, EC replied that nearly 4 crore votes were matched with VVPAT results, and not a single result was found incorrect.
One interesting point to note is that, when the first complaints were raised about EVMs, Election Commission organized a Hackathon challenging anybody to come forward and hack an EVM. None came forward.
The issue was raised several times in the Supreme Court and every time, the apex court dismissed every petition. Anybody having any concrete proof or genuine grounds, can file petitions. Those who went to courts without any solid proof and put forth arguments based on surmises, had to return empty-handed.
To argue that EVMs worked correctly in Jharkhand and were fudged in Maharashtra is not a good thing for democracy. Seeding baseless doubts in the minds of people about the electoral process can create a situation as is being witnessed in neighbouring Pakistan.
Yogi to Kharge : Why silence on killer Razakars?
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday, at his Akola, Maharashtra, rally, launched a direct attack on Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge. He mentioned about how Razakars owing allegiance to the then Nizam of Hyderabad had burnt his ancestral village, Warwatti, in 1946, killing his mother and sister.
Yogi said, “Kharge Ji is unnecessarily getting angry with me. I respect his age. He should express his anger with the Nizam of Hyderabad, whose Razakars burnt his village, mercilessly killed Hindus and took the lives of his mother, sister, and family members. He should bring this truth before the nation and the world. Only then people will know the meaning of my slogan, ‘Bantogey Toh Katogey’. He is refraining from placing this truth before the nation due to vote bank compulsions. He is deceiving the nation. I am only a Yogi. I have learnt only one thing. Do whatever is good for your country. For me, there can be nothing greater than my country and Sanatan Dharma.”
Yogi was only quoting from history. Kharge, while addressing a Congress workers’ convention at Delhi’s Talkatora stadium on August 17 last year, had said, “It is my misfortune that I could not see my mom, my brother, sister and uncle, because our home was burnt during the riots that led to Hyderabad liberation. Only my father and I were alive. It was in 1946, as riots went on from 1946 till 1948. My father and I fled the village and we later settled in Gulbarga.”
Yogi was responding to Kharge’s criticism that he made at his Maharashtra and Jharkhand rallies. Kharge had said, “A true yogi cannot use language like ‘Bantogey Toh Katogey’. Such language is used by terrorists. Yogi is the head of a mutt, wears saffron robes, but believes in ‘Munh me ram, Bagal Mein Chhuri’ (a wolf in lamb’s clothing).”
One must understand why Yogi raised the Hyderabad Razakar’s atrocities while replying to Kharge’s charge. The Congress President has often disclosed how he and his father fled their village during the 1946 riots and their family members died at the hands of Razakars. But Kharge never mentioned the Razakars or Nizam in his speeches.
It was Yogi who grabbed this point and put a poser to Kharge. Yogi alleged that Kharge was avoiding mention of Nizam and Razakars because his Congress party was concerned about keeping its Muslim votes intact. One BJP leader remarked, how can you call it secularism, when Kharge lost his family to jihadi Razakars and yet he speaks about Hindus as terrorists.
Senior Congress leader and former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot hit back saying, “BJP leaders are intimidating the public. They brought the “Ek Rahengey, Safe Rahengey” slogan later, to control the damage, but their original slogan was ‘Bantogey Toh Katogey’. This is a dangerous slogan. Is this not at attempt to intimidate people? This is a clear indication of the way they want to do politics in the name of religion during elections.”
Hindu sadhus have openly lent support to Yogi. Jagadguru Rambhadracharya said, “despite many sects, Hindus must remain united. Only then nobody can harm us. United we remain strong. Saffron is the colour of Bhagwan. It was this saffron flag which Shivaji used to unite Maharashtra. Bhagwadharis should remain in politics, not those who are suited-booted.” It was Mallikarjun Kharge who had questioned Yogi’s saffron robes.