Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Sunday hit out at the Opposition over its allegations against the Election Commission (EC) and the country’s electoral process, saying such claims were aimed at misleading the public and creating distrust in constitutional institutions.Speaking at Janseva Sadan, Gupta said the Opposition should speak to people about its development model and policies instead of creating controversies around constitutional institutions. She said the country was moving forward on the path of development and governments were undertaking several works in the public interest.
Questioning the allegations against the Election Commission, the Chief Minister asked whether the poll panel had functioned with the same level of transparency during the Opposition’s tenure. She said the Commission had placed its processes and decisions before the public and clarified that its decisions had been taken unanimously.
Gupta said everyone had the right to ask questions in a democracy, but such questions should be based on facts. She said making political allegations and damaging the credibility of a constitutional institution was not appropriate.
On questions being raised over Form-6, Gupta said the Election Commission had clarified that there had been no change in the original Form-6 used for the registration of the new voters. She said a declaration related to the SIR process had been added separately and that Form-6 and the related declaration were available on the Election Commission’s citizen services portal.
The Chief Minister said the revision of the electoral rolls was a regular process aimed at retaining eligible voters on the rolls and verifying entries that had become ineligible due to death, relocation, duplication or other reasons.
On allegations of “vote chori”, Gupta said the process involved identifying people who had died, duplicate entries, voters who had shifted and other entries that had become invalid. She said the SIR process had a prescribed procedure for the verification of the electoral rolls, along with claims and objections.
Questioning the Opposition’s concerns over such verification, Gupta said, “You may spread as much false propaganda as you want to mislead the people, but the people are watching everything. The people will answer each and every point. Lies have no legs.”
The Chief Minister also said the Opposition should not question the electoral system and constitutional institutions merely because election results did not turn out as expected. Referring to the BJP’s 2014 Lok Sabha election victory, she questioned whether similar questions had been raised about the credibility of the Election Commission at that time.
Gupta said maintaining public trust in the electoral process was the responsibility of all political parties and leaders. She said any objection to the electoral process should be raised through the prescribed constitutional and legal channels.
Referring to Rahul Gandhi and other Opposition leaders, Gupta said their activities and statements were, in her view, “no less than treason” and said cases of treason should be registered against them.
The Chief Minister said political opposition had its place, but creating confusion among the public by questioning the credibility of democratic institutions and the electoral process without sufficient basis should not be acceptable. She said the Election Commission was working to ensure the rights of the eligible voters and make electoral rolls more accurate and up to date.
