Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday lashed out at Congress MP Rahul Gandhi as part of the Opposition protest lobbied for Forms 10A typecasting and demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar in view of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral lists.
At the Mahayuti gathering in Thane, Fadnavis invoked the Emergency of 1975, had a dig at Congress’s word games on protecting constitutional safeguards and democratic institutions.
Fadnavis Recalls the Emergency
Fadnavis lambasted the Congress government of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for its role in choking constitutional institutions and tampering with fundamental rights during the ‘Emergency’.
“In 1975, Dr BR Ambedkar’s Constitution provisions relating to powers of the Supreme Court were withdrawn by the Congress government and the government declared an emergency under Congress leadership led by Indira Gandhi,” the Maharashtra Chief Minister added.
He said that it was necessary “to look at how the Opposition criticized the constitutional institutions compared to the records of the Congress in Emergency.
Opposition’s SIR Protest
The statements are made during a political spat between the ruling parties and the Opposition over the SIR exercise. Opposition leaders, such as Rahul Gandhi, have expressed fears of electoral list manipulations and called into doubts the working of the Election Commission.
Fadnavis, during the rally, directed all the criticism at the Congress, saying its actions during the Emergency were akin to the same kind of restrictions which it had imposed then and bringing the Congress into disrepute by hampering the democratic processes.
The official communique shows that there were continuing tensions over the electoral roll revision process and the demands made by the Opposition with regards to the Chief Election Commissioner.