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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Mangaluru: Two arrested on charges of selling narcotic drugs
Mangaluru: Urva Police on Tuesday arrested two individuals on charges of selling the narcotic drug MDMA. The accused have been identified as Syed Kalimulla (31) of Ramanagara in Shivamogga district and Ashraf Ali (26) of Mangalpady in Manjeshwar.
The arrests were made near Barebail on National Highway 66, where the two were reportedly moving suspiciously. Upon interrogation, they revealed that they had arrived to sell MDMA.
Police seized 12.27 grams of MDMA worth ₹25,000 and a mobile phone valued at ₹7,000 from Syed Kalimulla. From Ashraf Ali, officers confiscated 6.18 grams of MDMA valued at ₹12,500 along with a mobile phone, officials said.
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