Congress' defeat in polls due to its leadership, not EVMs or 'vote chori': Amit Shah in Lok Sabha

New Delhi, Dec 10 (PTI) A combative Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday hit out at the opposition in the Lok Sabha for its campaign against SIR, saying the issue has been raked up as it can no longer win elections by "corrupt practices", and asserted that the reason for Congress' defeat in polls was its leadership, not EVMs or "vote chori".

In his intervention in the debate on election reforms, Shah alleged that the opposition wanted to keep the "avaidh ghuspathiye' (illegal immigrants) in the voter list and hence the SIR issue was raised, but the Narendra Modi government's policy is clear -- detect all aliens, delete their names from the voters list and throw them out of the country.

Shah gave a point-by-point rebuttal to the opposition's charges on SIR during his 90-minute speech, which also saw Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi interrupting the home minister to challenge him to debate with him on his three press conferences on"vote chori", leading to heated exchanges between the two leaders, and a walkout by the opposition some time later.

Seeking to corner the Congress, Shah claimed that there were three instances of "vote chori" by Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.

"Post Independence, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was backed by 28 persons, while Jawaharlal Nehru was supported by two persons and yet Nehru became the prime minister, this was vote chori," he said.

Shah said the second "vote chori" was by Indira Gandhi, when she granted herself immunity after the court set aside her election.

He said the dispute of the third "vote chori" has just reached the civil courts on how Sonia Gandhi "became a voter before becoming a citizen of India", a remark that invited sharp reactions from the Congress benches.

Targeting the Congress, Shah 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 the EVM blame does not hold, they brought up vote chori... still, they lost Bihar. 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 Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls 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'.

Interrupting his speech, Rahul Gandhi challenged the home minister to debate with him on his three press conferences in which the Congress leader alleged "vote chori" by the BJP in collusion with the Election Commission.

Fiery exchanges were witnessed with Shah and Gandhi trading barbs. "Let us have a debate on my press conference. Amit Shah ji, I challenge you to have a debate on the three press conferences," the Congress leader said.

Shah shot back that he will not frame his speech according to the wishes of the Leader of Opposition and also not change the sequence of his argument on someone else's demand.

When the opposition MPs walked out during his speech, Shah said no matter how many times they boycott, the NDA will continue with its policy of "detect, delete and deport" illegal immigrants.

The opposition wants to normalise and formalise the "ghuspathiye" and add them to the electoral rolls, he alleged. Shah said the NDA won the recent assembly elections in Bihar, where SIR was conducted ahead of the polls, despite the opposition's objections to the Election Commission's exercise.

He also told the members of TMC and DMK that if they continue to oppose SIR in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, they will be wiped out in the next year's assembly polls.

Shah said no party opposed SIR between 1952 and 2004. The home minister said 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 SIR rolls is to remove from voter list those who have died, add 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 it is tarnishing the the government's image by levelling allegations but 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, claiming the opposition is worried as people of the country do not vote for them and SIR will delete names of illegal immigrants who back them.

The new tradition is that if they lose, they defame the EC and electoral rolls, he said, adding it 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.

"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, replying to demands by opposition MPs during the debate to revert to the paper ballot system.

Participating in the debate, Congress' K C Venugopal questioned the government on excluding the Chief Justice of India from the committee to appoint the Chief Election Commissioner and fellow Election Commissioners.

Senior BJP leader and former Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad asserted that when an elected government headed by the prime minister can be trusted with the nuclear button, why can't it be the case when selecting a good CEC or EC. He also warned that a return to the old system of paper ballot would mean going back to the days of booth capturing.

Trinamool Congress leader Satabdi Roy accused the government of turning a respectable word 'SIR' into a 'Gabbar Singh-like' fearful figure and torture for voters.

AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi alleged that the SIR is nothing but "backdoor NRC" and a "malafide exercise" to selectively disenfranchise people on the basis of religion.

In his speech, Shah said the EVMs were used for the first time in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections and then in the 2009 elections and on both occasions, the Congress won, but they started complaining only after the 2014 loss. "The tradition of electoral loss began in 2014 and the Congress blamed EVMs, which were brought by Rajiv Gandhi in 1989," he said.

Stressing that the BJP and NDA never run away from a discussion in Parliament, he said a debate was agreed on electoral reforms, but the majority of opposition members talked of SIR. "I believe discussion on SIR cannot be held because it comes under the Election Commission," Shah said.

"One-sided falsehoods were being propagated in the last four months on SIR and efforts were made to mislead people," he alleged. PTI SKU ASK NAB ACB RT RT