New Delhi: Both houses of the parliament witnessed a fiery debate this week as lawmakers discussed the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) issue and the national song ‘Vande Mataram’. Union Home Minister Amit Shah delivered a hard-hitting speech against the Opposition over claims of vote theft, while Congress leaders, led by Rahul Gandhi, fired back.
While calling Shah's speech “outstanding”, the Prime Minister said it included “concrete facts” and highlighted the diversity of India's electoral process. PM Modi further said that Shah had “exposed the lies of the Opposition.”
In his 90-minute speech in the Lower House, Shah gave a point-by-point presentation of the government’s stance on SIR. Opening his address, he accused the three generations of the Nehru-Gandhi family of what he termed “vote chori.”
Shah also attacked the Congress party on its electoral setbacks, while saying the party blamed everyone except itself. “If a journalist questions them, he becomes a BJP agent. If they lose a case, the judge is blamed. If they lose an election, they blame EVMs,” Shah said.
The remarks came a day after the Opposition called for bringing back ballot papers for polling in future elections during a debate on the electoral rolls revision in the Lower House Congress MP Manish Tewari opened the debate in the Parliament and raised transparency issues in the electronic voting machines (EVMs) and concerns regarding the SIR exercise of electoral rolls. He also discussed the concerns regarding the neutrality of the Election Commission and the body's legal rights to hold the SIR exercise across different states.
Amit Shah under pressure: Rahul GandhiCongress leader Rahul Gandhi sharpened his attack on Union Home Minister Amit Shah, claiming the BJP leader looked “under pressure” during Wednesday’s confrontation. “Amit Shah ji was very nervous in Parliament yesterday. His hands were trembling, he used the wrong language. Amit Shah ji is under a lot of mental pressure — which the whole country saw yesterday,” the Leader of the Opposition said. Gandhi said he directly challenged Shah to debate the allegations he made in his press conference on 'vote chori', but received no answer. “The things I have said, he did not address, did not give any proof. I directly challenged Amit Shah ji to debate me at my press conference — and no response came to that either,” the Congress leader said. “What the truth is, you all know.” |
