Omar Abdullah tells Congress to stop whining about EVMs, accept poll results
New Delhi(PTI): Opening another point of friction with an important ally, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has dismissed the Congress party’s vehement objection to Electronic Voting Machines, and echoed the BJP’s defence -- you can't accept election results when you win, and blame EVMs when you lose.
"When you get a hundred plus members of Parliament using the same EVMs, and you celebrate that as sort of a victory for your party, you can't then a few months later turn around and say... we don't like these EVMs because now the election results aren't going the way we would like them to," Abdullah told PTI in an exclusive interview on Friday.
Told that he sounded suspiciously like a BJP spokesman, Abdullah reacted with “God forbid!” He then added: "No, it's just that... what's right is right."
He said he speaks based on principles rather than with partisan loyalty and cited his support for infrastructure projects like the Central Vista as an example of his independent thinking.
"Contrary to what everybody else believes, I think that what's happening with this Central Vista project in Delhi is a damn good thing. I believe constructing a new Parliament building was an excellent idea. We needed a new Parliament building. The old one had outlived its utility," he said.
He said parties should not contest elections if they do not trust the voting mechanism.
"If you have problems with the EVMs, then you should be consistent in those problems," he said while replying to a question about whether he thinks that the opposition in general and the Congress, in particular, is barking up the wrong tree by focusing on EVMs.
After its loss in the Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly polls, the Congress has expressed doubts about the EVM’s infallibility and the election outcome. It has demanded a return to the paper ballot.
Abdullah’s comments add to his National Conference party’s unhappiness with the Congress, which was allied with it during the September Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
NC officials have privately said that the Congress did not do its bit during the campaigning and left all the heavy lifting to them. Still, the NC won 42 seats in the 90-member Assembly, and the Congress got six.
The chief minister emphasised that electoral machines remain the same regardless of the election outcome, and parties should not use them as a convenient excuse for defeat.
"One day voters choose you, the next day they don't," he said and gave his own example of facing defeat in Lok Sabha polls while winning a majority in the September assembly polls.
"I never blamed the machines," he said.
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BSP chief Mayawati urges parties to support ONOE bills; slams SP, Cong on reservation issue
Lucknow, Dec 15: BSP chief Mayawati on Sunday attacked the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, saying they should not speak on reservations as they colluded in opposing legislation giving quota in promotions to Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) when the Congress-led UPA was in power.
Addressing a press conference, she also backed the Centre's bills on 'one nation- one election', stressing it will reduce expenses and ensure public welfare works continue uninterrupted. She urged other parties to also support the measure.
Mayawati demanded that reservations for SC, ST and OBC be included in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution to prevent any tampering. Central and state laws listed in the Ninth Schedule are exempt from judicial review.
During the discussion on the Constitution in Lok Sabha, the ruling side and the opposition, especially the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, to woo Dalit and OBC voters, have said a lot of "baseless" things about reservation issue in which there is "not even an iota of truth", she told reporters.
"And it would have been better if these two parties (Congress, SP) had remained silent on this issue in Parliament, because during the time of the Congress party's government at the Centre and with the connivance of this party, SP had strongly opposed the Constitutional Amendment Bill related to reservations in promotion of SC and ST communities.
"This bill was torn and thrown away by SP in the Parliament itself and ... is still pending in the Parliament," she lamented.
The BSP chief also targeted the ruling BJP and said, "The anti-reservation mentality of the BJP is also clearly visible, due to which they are in no mood to get the bill passed.''
Mayawati said that there was a heated discussion in the Parliament on the 'glorious journey of 75 Years of the Constitution of India'.
"But its usefulness is possible only when it is accepted with an open mind whether the ruling class has been able to provide employment and justice, a life of self-respect and self-esteem to crores of people of the country as per the sacred intention of the humanitarian and welfare Constitution," she said.
The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said that the Constitution has not failed but the people and parties ruling the country have failed the Constitution of the country with their "narrow thinking and casteist politics".
Mayawati also said that the "resolutions" being taken by the current BJP government are not going to benefit the people of the country.
She said if the government makes amendments to the Constitution to benefit a party or any particular person or institution, "then our party will strongly oppose it".
Mayawati said being the party of the poor and the oppressed, the BSP welcomes the related bills brought by the BJP government regarding 'one nation, one election'.
It would be better for all the parties to rise above party politics and work in the interest of the country and the general public on this issue, she said.
The BSP has faced a steady electoral decline in recent years and has only one Rajya Sabha MP in Parliament.
