All elections rigged: Rahul

New Delhi: Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Thursday launched a scathing attack on Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Narendra Modi government, linking the alleged irregularities in the electoral process to the legitimacy of laws made by Parliament. “From vote chori comes kanoon chori.

Today the vote is gone, the law-making system is gone. If the vote has been stolen, then any law, any institutional change that the lawmakers who have been voted to Parliament through vote chori have made is also illegal,” Rahul Gandhi said.

Gandhi said, “100 per cent sure that elections are rigged. All elections are rigged,” while questioning how anti-incumbency appeared to have disappeared in India.

The Congress leader said PM Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and CEC Gyanesh Kumar were "deshdrohis" (traitors) as they "destroyed" India's vote, and demanded the immediate resignation of the CEC. He asserted that Modi and Shah would be investigated for what they have done to this country.

His remarks came a day after an investigative report claimed that the two ECs had not been in consonance with the CEC on several issues over the past 10 months during the rollout of the SIR nationwide and alleged that they were kept in the dark.

“Vote is the foundation of our nation and our vote has been destroyed,” Rahul Gandhi said, referring to the reported dissent within the Election Commission. “Not just attack on vote, it’s the attack on the expression of every Indian,” he said.

Delivering his speech from the Congress headquarters in Delhi, Rahul Gandhi called the alleged “vote chori” a great “conspiracy” against the country, while turning around and pointing to a slide that showed alleged conspirators, with pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, among others. Below them were “pawns”, whose pictures included those of prominent journalists and filmmakers.

Calling Gyanesh Kumar a “deshdrohi”, Rahul paused for a moment and said, “Because these are the truths. A person who attacks the vote, who fundamentally destroys India's democratic institution, is nothing other than a traitor. You cannot give him any other word. That's the word.” He demanded Kumar's immediate resignation.

Rahul Gandhi said he was not making the allegations lightly and claimed that he had been raising the issue for three years, based on what he described as facts rather than conjecture or imagination. “I have always said it based on fact. I have not used conjecture, I have not used my imagination. I have used fact,” Gandhi said.

He alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had “attacked and destroyed the democratic architecture of this country”.

Rahul Gandhi further said the Election Commission was responsible for protecting voters’ rights and argued that if the vote was destroyed, the Constitution was not working. He went on to allege that Indian elections are being “rigged” and claiming there is “100% certainty” that the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections were manipulated. “There is already more than enough information to make this 100% certainty, not 99%, 100% certainty that Indian elections, Lok Sabha elections, 2024 election, Vidhan Sabha elections are all being rigged,” Gandhi said.

Gandhi questioned why anti-incumbency, which he said had repeatedly affected Congress and regional parties, appeared to have disappeared in recent elections.

He cited former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s popularity after the 1971 Bangladesh war, followed by a sharp rise in anti-incumbency within a few years.

“The same exact thing happens to leader after leader after leader. Happens to Congress leaders. Happens to regional parties. But for some reason, it never happens to Narendra Modi. Does not happen to Shah? Does not happen to the BJP?" Gandhi asked.

He cited electoral swings in Haryana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, arguing that the traditional pattern of anti-incumbency had changed.

Gandhi said the Congress had been trying to understand why this was happening and linked the answer to what he described as problems with the electoral process. “The vote is the foundation of our country,” he said, arguing that the Election Commission is the institutional protector of the vote. Gandhi said the vote gives the Constitution its power, the Constitution enables laws to be made and laws give rise to institutions. “If the vote has been destroyed, then our Constitution has been destroyed. It no longer has its power. It no longer functions,” he said.

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