Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday targeted Congress MP Rahul Gandhi amid the Opposition’s ongoing stir against alleged SIR irregularities and Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.
Addressing a Mahayuti rally in Thane, Fadnavis recalled the Emergency period and accused Congress of hypocrisy on constitutional safeguards. “In1975, Indira Gandhi led a Congress-imposed emergency by emending the Constitution and taking away the powers from the Supreme Court.
The powers were given to the courts by Dr BR Ambedkar’s Constitution were taken away by the Congress,” the chief minister said.
Indira Gandhi’s grandson Rahul is doing the same things. Targeting the Congress over its alleged links with China, Fadnavis questioned why the party and its associated trusts had received donations from China while accusing the neighbouring country of attempting to foment unrest in India. He also alleged that foreign money and resources were being deployed to fuel protests and social media campaigns against the government.
“The Janata Party government which came to power in 1977 gave back the powers to the Court.
He said that the erstwhile Indira Gandhi-led government had curtailed fundamental rights and undermined democratic institutions during the period. They are levelling allegations of Vote Chori, but Congress is Sanvidhan Chor and the history is being repeated by Rahul Gandhi,” he said. Fadnavis also said that Congress wants to undermine the Constitution, but since they cannot do it directly, they are attempting to diminish the constitutional institutions. “They are trying to set the fake narrative that these institutions are of no use and then want to silently change the constitution,” he alleged.
Maharashtra CM defends SIR
Because names of deceased voters and alleged Bangladeshi infiltrators were being removed, fadnavis also defended the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, alleging that the Opposition was protesting against the exercise. He challenged the Congress to explain why it was opposing the deletion of names of 2.5 crore deceased voters.
Fadnavis said that the Opposition was using the Constitution as a shield while systematically discrediting constitutional institutions to pave the way for what he described as a China-influenced rule. He said the SIR exercise had been conducted eight times during Congress rule and that, unlike earlier exercises, political parties had been given the right to appoint booth-level agents to flag discrepancies and seek corrections.
