New Delhi: The BJP on Saturday accused the INDIA bloc of making a ‘mockery’ of Parliament and democracy by holding a symbolic ‘public impeachment’ of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, and said the Congress would not succeed in its attempts to ‘launch’ its leader Rahul Gandhi.
“Go ahead and hold your mock parliament or take out your marches; the world has already understood that Rahul Gandhi simply lacks the fuel. This ‘satellite’ is never going to launch,” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said in a swipe at the Congress. He added that the Opposition could have Gandhi as a ‘mock Prime Minister for life’.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, Patra accused the Congress of spreading lies about alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the functioning of the Election Commission.
The BJP leader termed the Congress's allegations of 'vote chori' a ‘lie’ and alleged that “it was Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who became PM by 'vote chori'. He stole Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's vote and became PM”.
The Opposition INDIA bloc was “making a mockery of democracy by holding a mock parliament today”, Patra said.
“And I have a humble request: please, do not dismantle this mock parliament you have created. Just seat Rahul Gandhi on the treasury benches. Leave the T-shirt, have him wear a 'kurta-pyjama' and let him sit there while you chant 'Prime Minister, Prime Minister' like a 'bhajan-kirtan' every single day. Keep him as your 'mock Prime Minister' for life; we have absolutely no objection,” he added.
Describing the Opposition's mock parliament as a ‘drama’, Patra rejected its allegations of changes to Form 6, which citizens fill out to enrol as voters, and accused Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge of lying on the issue.
“Only a declaration has been added to Form 6,” the BJP MP said.
The BJP's attack came as the Opposition bloc held a symbolic ‘public impeachment’ of Kumar during a mock Parliament session at Kharge's residence here, ahead of its rally on Sunday.
“No one's vote has been stolen. There should not be any confusion in anyone's mind,” Patra said.
“The SIR exercise is not yet complete. Those who were absent are being added. Those six crore voters, who have shifted (from their previous address), will also be added once they complete the process.”
Patra said the ‘remaining individuals’ were in the process of rejoining the voter list by filling up Form 6.
“Only 'ghuspaithiyas' (infiltrators) are neither filling up the form nor responding to the notice deliberately,” he said, alleging that a large number of such people had been made Indian citizens based on forged documents when Mamata Banerjee was the chief minister of West Bengal.
Patra also took exception to former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar's participation in the Opposition's mock parliament, saying she should ‘introspect’ on whether it was appropriate for her to chair the proceedings as the ‘speaker’.
Separately, BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi cited the World Bank's latest report on India's poverty rate to attack the INDIA bloc's proceedings, saying the findings had ‘mocked’ its ‘mock parliament’.
The report noted that India's extreme poverty rate fell to 2.6 per cent in 2023 from 27.1 per cent in 2011, with an estimated 496 million (49.60 crore) people lifted out of poverty.
“The World Bank's hard statistics have in a way mocked their mock parliament,” Trivedi said.
While the BJP-led NDA government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi was working to eradicate poverty, the Congress under Rahul Gandhi's leadership was spreading the ‘flames of anarchy’, the BJP Rajya Sabha MP said.
Trivedi also hit out at Gandhi for his earlier remark that the ‘Indian economy is dead’, saying the World Bank report showed that it was not the Indian economy, but the Opposition's ‘conscience’ that had died.
“Their faculty of rational thinking has completely died so far as India's interests are concerned. They always think against India. So I want to tell the Congress and Rahul Gandhi that you should ponder very seriously over what is reality and what is fiction,” he said.
“How long will you remain trapped in illusions and keep adorning your political funeral just to satisfy the ambitions and soothe the heart of your wayward prince?” Trivedi said.
He said the BJP-NDA government under Modi was committed to raising the standard of living of every person in India and had made significant progress in this direction.
“We have achieved a big success in eliminating poverty, which has been acknowledged by the World Bank's report,” he added.
