Oppn raising SIR to keep 'ghuspathiye' in electoral rolls: Shah
New Delhi (PTI): In a stinging attack at the Opposition over its criticism of the SIR, Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said they are worried because they can no longer win elections by corrupt practices and claimed that the reason for Congress' defeat in polls was its leadership and not EVMs or "vote chori".
Intervening in a debate on election reforms in the Lok Sabha, Shah alleged that the Opposition is raising the issue of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls to keep "avaidh ghuspathiye (illegal immigrants)" in the voters' list.
When the opposition MPs walked out later, Shah said no matter how many times the Opposition boycotts, the NDA will continue with its policy of detect, delete and deport 'ghuspathiye'.
The Opposition wants to normalise and formalise the 'ghuspathiye' and add them in electoral rolls, he said.
The BJP leader cited three instances of alleged "vote chori" by Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.
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"Post Independence, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was backed by 28 persons while Jawaharlal Nehru by two persons and yet Nehru became the prime minister, this was vote chori," he said.
The minister said that the second "vote chori" was by Indira Gandhi, when she granted herself immunity after court set aside her election.
He said the dispute of third "vote chori" has just reached civil courts on how Sonia Gandhi became a voter before becoming citizen of India.
Shah also took a dig at the Congress and said the reason for its poll losses was its leadership.
"If someone asks a question in a presser he is dubbed as a BJP agent, if they lose a case, they accuse the judge, if they lose an election, they blame EVMs. Now when EVM blame does not hold, they brought up vote chori...still they lost Bhar. Now the reason for your defeat is your leadership and not EVM or voters' list," the home minister said.
"They think no one holds them accountable, 'bhagwan kare, I am proved wrong and one day Congress workers seek their accountability," he said.
Shah also accused the Opposition of spreading falsehoods on SIR and launched a strong defence of the exercise, asking whether democracy can be safe when the prime minister and the chief ministers are decided by 'ghuspathiye'.
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He said the Opposition "gets angry when we talk of history, but how can any country or society move forward without history".
"The first SIR was conducted in 1952, when Jawaharlal Nehru was the prime minister and the Congress was in power. Then it happened in 1957 when Nehru was there, the third happened in 1961 and Nehru was there.
"Then it happened during Lal Bahadur Shastri's time, then again during Indira Gandhi's time, Rajiv Gandhi's time, Narasimha Rao's time, and then in 2002 during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's time which continued till Manmohan Singh's time," he said.
"No party had opposed this process because it is a process of keeping elections clean and keeping democracy healthy," Shah said.
He said the objective of the SIR of electoral rolls is to remove those who have died, add the names of those who have turned 18 and delete foreign nationals one by one.
"I want to say to the House and people -- Can a country's democracy be safe when the prime minister and the chief minister are decided by 'ghuspathiye'," Shah said.
The BJP leader said the Opposition thinks that it is tarnishing the image of the government but in reality they are tarnishing the image of India's democracy.
"They kept on doing vote chori, vote chori, and took out 'ghuspathiye bachao yatra' and we won by 2/3rd majority in Bihar," he said.
The new tradition is that if they lose, they defame the EC and electoral rolls which is not good for the country's democracy.
"If electoral rolls were corrupted, why did you contest elections," Shah asked the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
He said the BJP has lost more elections than it has won, but it never questioned the Election Commission.
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"EVMs stopped election chori and that is why they are worried. Their method of election was not mandate but corrupt practices, and they have been fully exposed," he said.
Opposition worried as people of country do not vote for them and SIR will delete names of illegal immigrants who back them, he said.
Tradition of electoral loss began in 2014 and the Congress blamed EVMs, which were brought by Rajiv Gandhi in 1989, he said.
The EVMs were used for first time in 2004 and then in 2009 elections and on both occasions, the Congress won, but they started complaining only after 2014 loss, he said.
He stressed that Parliament is the biggest panchayat for discussions and the BJP-NDA people never run away from a discussion.
"We asked for having it later for two reasons -- they (Opposition) were asking for discussion on SIR and I believe discussion on SIR cannot be held because it comes under the Election Commission," Shah said.
"When they said we want to discuss election reforms, we agreed immediately. A debate was agreed on electoral reforms, but the majority of opposition members talked of SIR. On this SIR, one-sided falsehoods were being propagated in the last four months and efforts were made to mislead people," he said.
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Real Madrid fines Valverde and Tchouaméni half a million euros each for altercation
Barcelona (AP): Real Madrid slapped players Federico Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni with half-a-million-euro ($588,000) fines on Friday for their altercation during practice.
The massive fines came a day after the midfielders tussled when the team trained. Valverde said in a post on social media on Thursday that no punches were thrown. But Valverde knocked his head on a table and he suffered a small cut that required a brief hospital visit.
On social media, Valverde initially called it a “meaningless fight” with a teammate and said “everything has been blown out of proportion."
His employers, however, considered it a significant enough breach of team discipline to nail both Valverde and Tchouaméni with fines that bite even the bank account of a top soccer player. The half-a-million euro penalties reflect the reputational damage the club was enduring in a chaotic end to a disappointing season.
In a statement, the 15-time European champion said its disciplinary action was concluded after both players expressed to the club “their complete remorse for what happened and apologized to one another.”
Madrid added they also apologized to their teammates, the coaching staff and club supporters, as well as showing their willingness to accept whatever disciplinary action the club deemed “opportune.”
Tchouaméni was back training with Madrid on Friday, two days before they play at Barcelona in a clasico. Madrid has to win otherwise Barcelona will be crowned La Liga champion.
After being notified of the fine, he posted a public apology to the club and its fans on social media.
“What happened this week in training is unacceptable,” Tchouaméni wrote. "I say this while thinking about the example we are expected to set for young people, whether in football or at school.
“Above all, I am sorry for the image we projected of the club.”
Valverde was not at practice due to the head knock.
Both players are set to play in the World Cup next month, with Tchouaméni playing for France and Valverde for Uruguay.
Chaotic end to a poor season
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The run-in between the players, who for seasons have played side by side in Madrid's midfield, came after they argued this week in previous training sessions. But tempers boiled over on Thursday. Spanish media was rife with reports that the players previously disagreed over the club's decision to let coach Xabi Alonso go after just months on the job.
It was not the only altercation involving Madrid players during training this week. Álvaro Carreras confirmed he was in a “minor” incident with a teammate. Spanish media said he and fellow defender Antonio Rüdiger got into a scuffle.
Álvaro Arbeloa, the coach who was promoted from Madrid's reserve team when Alonso was fired in January, will face tough questions on what went wrong inside the changing room when he gives a press conference on Saturday ahead of the clasico at Camp Nou.
Madrid is facing a second consecutive campaign without a major trophy amid rumors in the Spanish media that club president Florentino Pérez is considering bringing back Jose Mourinho to straighten out his underperforming team.
