‘Rajiv Gandhi brought EVMs, SIR done several times under Nehru, Indira also’: Shah slams Opposition

Union Home Minister Amit Shah hit out at the opposition’s walkout on Wednesday with the ‘ghuspaithiya’ (illegal immigrant) jibe, saying that they walked out only when he started speaking about removing all illegal immigrants. “They walked out because of ‘ghuspaithiya’ because our policy is ‘detect, delete, and deport’. Their policy is to normalise infiltration, register them and then put them in voters’ list to normalise,” Shah said in Lok Sabha. He said he had also criticised Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi in the speech but the Opposition chose to walk out only when he spoke about illegal immigrants and infiltrators. Shah said the Opposition walkout would make no difference on the government’s policy and approach and asserted that “not a single infiltrator will be allowed to vote.”

Shah attacked the opposition parties saying they only want to safeguard illegal immigrants and infiltrators. “The main concern of these parties is that they want to keep illegal residents and intruders on the voter list,” he added.

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‘Rajiv Gandhi brought EVMs, why is Congress opposing them,’ asks Shah

Shah questioned why the opposition was opposing the Electronic Voting Machine that was introduced in 1989 under the Rajiv Gandhi government. He also recalled the 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha elections, and asked why the Congress did not have a problem with EVM then.

He also questioned why the Congress and other parties did not attend the EVM hackathon organised by the Election Commission and why they do not approach court with complaints over polls.

‘SIR done several times under Nehru, Indira Gandhi also’

Shah said the first SIR was conducted under first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1952, and added that several SIRs were later held under the Congress governments, including that of Nehru and Indira Gandhi, in 1957, 1961, 1965-66, 1983-84.

“Until 2004, no political party opposed the SIR. The process is essential for maintaining clean electoral rolls and a healthy democracy. If the electoral rolls—the foundation of elections—are not accurate and up-to-date, we cannot expect the election process to be transparent and fair. Therefore, periodic SIRs of electoral rolls are necessary,” said Shah.

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‘When you win, EC is great. When you lose, EC works at BJP’s behest?’

“In his press conference, the LoP levelled allegations that the voter list is not corrected and needs to be rectified. So, what is SIR? It is the procedure to sanitise the voter list. He is opposing even when we are undertaking the process,” said Shah.

“Double standards won’t work in a democracy. When you win, EC is great. When you lose, EC is useless and works at BJP’s behest,” he remarked.

‘NDA won 3 Lok Sabha polls, 41 state polls since 2014, Cong also won 30’: Shah

Union Home Minister lashed out at the Congress, saying the NDA won 3 Lok Sabha polls since 2014, along with 41 state polls. He added that the Congress also won 30 state polls during the last 11 years, and asked how would it have won if the elections were rigged.

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“Reason for electoral loss is your leadership, not EVM or electoral rolls. Opposition is worried because they can no longer run away with ballot boxes and win elections by corrupt practices,” Shah said.

After the walkout, Rahul Gandhi said, “You should have seen the response of Home Minister, it was totally a defensive response, and what points we raised, he did not answer... I had said two-three things, I had asked for transparent voter list, he did not say a word, I had asked for sharing EVM architecture, he did not say a word... The CEC has been given full immunity...”