• Adv. Rajiv Sharma

It is a truism that free, fair and transparent elections are a lifeline of any democracy. Only a vibrant democracy lays the foundation of equitable rule of law, the magnificent idea of unity in diversity & pluralism and majestic goals of socio - economic justice, equality and dignity for all. But in India, the democracy with all its consequential advantages is under serious threat and its fate hangs in a realm of uncertainty. The most potent threat comes from the ruling party, which has mastered the art of manipulating the electoral process to its advantage. Consequently, the deterioration of democratic process has been so stark that the will of the voters no longer gets reflected in the election results.

Many of us have consistently been pointing out the brazenly glaring anomalies in the elections, especially in the recently held Parliamentary as well as in Haryana and Maharashtra assembly elections. But the Election Commission of India appears to be in no mood to take cognisance of the ominous attempts to murder democracy.

The Congress Party has demanded that the EC must explain the inexplicable increase of about 8% votes in Maharashtra. On November 20, 58.2% votes were recorded in Maharashtra by 5 pm, as per EC record. But votes polled increased to 67%, the next day, which means that a whopping 76 lakh votes were added after 5 pm. S.Y Quraishi, a former Chief Election Commissioner termed such a big variation as “worrying”. When a voter enters a polling booth, his attendance is marked in Form 17A. Thereafter, all the votes cast are entered in Form 17C on the same day under the signatures of polling officer. Hence, real-time data is generated on the day of polling itself without any time lag. If it significantly changes the next day, there must be something seriously wrong.

Ironically, such a big increase in the polled votes took place only in the BJP ruled states. The data also shows that when the number of votes changes significantly, it helps the BJP candidates only.

In this potentially catastrophic situation, the onus to protect the ethos of India has once again fallen upon the Congress Party. Up to 1947, the Congress freedom fighters combated the British attempts to divide the country on religious lines. Simultaneously, the Congressmen had to fight another battle against the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha, who were openly helping the British to defeat Congress-led freedom struggle. Now, in the 21st century, the BJP is playing the same game of religious polarization, which their predecessors then played as accomplices of the tyrant British regime. Therefore, it is high time the country embraced the path shown by the transcendent triumvirate of the freedom struggle ‘Gandhi, Nehru and Ambedkar’ with renewed vigour to save the country, because mantra of success of India, its Constitution and its Democracy emanates from their ideas only.

First, Mahatma Gandhi gave us the vision to identify challenges and find solutions. While lashing out at economic inequality in the country in one of his speeches during freedom struggle, the Mahatma said, "There is on the face of the earth no other country that has the problem that India has of chronic starvation and slow death - a process of dehumanisation. The solution must, therefore, be original. In trying to find it, we must find the cause of this tremendous tragedy......It means the levelling down of a few rich in whose hands is concentrated the bulk of the nation's wealth on the one hand, and the levelling up of the semi-starved naked millions on the other.

Architect of Modern India, Pandit Nehru was a beacon of hope, prosperity, progress and a crusader of democratic principles. In his iconic speech at the dawn of India’s freedom, he said, "Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge. At the stroke of midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.”The future beckons us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India, to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease, to build up a prosperous democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman.

Dr. Ambedkar, while addressing the Constituent Assembly in November 1949, termed the social inequalities as a threat to our freedom. He stated, “Political democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it social democracy. Social democracy is a way of life, which recognises liberty, equality and fraternity as the principles of life. On the social plane, we have in India a society based on principles of graded inequality which means elevation of some and degradation of others. On the economic plane, we have a society in which there are some who have immense wealth as against those who live in abject poverty”.

The readers will agree that the combined ideas of the three great men often resonate in the voice of Shri Rahul Gandhi, who zealously follows their ideological course. Shri Rahul Gandhi has been altruistically working to fulfil their dreams to have a just and fair socio-economic order in the country. Unfortunately, all this is an anathema to the BJP. Hence, the saffron party is extremely wary of the Congress Party and Shri Rahul Gandhi.

Ideologically, the BJP wants an unequal and religion based manuwadi society in the country. It wants that wealth, resources, employment and business opportunities are available to a few privileged ones. To achieve such elitist and anti-egalitarian goals, which are diametrically opposite to the ideology of the congress Party and the constitutional values, the BJP desperately needs to keep the Congress Party out of power. But it has no control over the choice of the voters. That is why, the BJP has vitiated the electoral process in order to steal the mandate in its favour with the support of some powerful and greedy businessmen, media houses and institutions, who wish to amass limitless wealth and enjoy unbridled power unscrupulously by usurping the rights of a vast multitude of underprivileged masses.

Today, the poll schedules are drawn as per the whims of the BJP and voters, who are considered inconvenient by the BJP are removed from the voter lists. The number of votes polled and recorded in the EVMs on the day of polling increase or decrease at the time of counting. Some EVMs are found to have retained 99% battery charge even after prolonged use. The hate speeches by the BJP leaders including those by the Prime Minister are not taken cognizance of. The BJP governments often announce enticing schemes after the enforcement of the model code of conduct. These and many more such undesirable actions are being taken with impunity in order to emasculate the electoral process.

In view of such open electoral malpractices prevailing in the country, every citizen needs to strengthen the hands of the Congress Party under the able leadership of Shri Mallikarjun Kharge and Shri Rahul Gandhi to save democracy. In my opinion, this is the only way to save the country.

The author is Chief Spokesperson, Chandigarh Pradesh Congress Committee