Opposition holds ‘impeachment’ of CEC Gyanesh Kumar; BJP terms it ‘drama’

Nineteen opposition parties enacted an unprecedented public impeachment of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar for “overseeing and participating in a devious and malevolent criminal conspiracy orchestrated by the BJP” to steal elections while holding him responsible for “a manipulated, truncated and destructive special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls” and demanded his immediate removal and a trial for treason in a court of law.

The resolution against Kumar was passed unanimously.Lok Sabha’s Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi summed up the exercise and said, “This is not some talks taking place in a garden. This is a political weapon that is going to give justice to the youth of India and people. This is our sacred duty for the Constitution.”‘We have nowhere else to go’The 3.5-hour-long show, attended by more than 250 opposition lawmakers, was held at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence at Rajaji Marg after 4 PM.

Several speakers lambasted Kumar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others the over SIR, alleged mass disenfranchisement and the “amending” Form 6 without Parliament’s knowledge. At 7.05, the resolution to remove Kumar was adopted unanimously.In his concluding remarks, Gandhi described that the Opposition had to meet at Kharge’s garden as they have nowhere else to go.“This is quite an absurd thing that is taking place.

Do we not have any other way to ask this questions? What happened to the judiciary? We have nowhere else to go. Every other institution is closed for us. One in every seven India’s votes have been deleted. This means, 2024 election was illegal and the BJP entered the Lok Sabha illegally. Gyanesh Kumar won’t survive as CEC,” he said. Calling the Opposition’s show as “an extremely dangerous political weapon that is targeted to Modi, Shah and others who colluded” Gandhi said, “What these people are saying is that you (Kumar) are hiding behind the institution you had to protect.

You can’t always hide behind the institution. Today or tomorrow, you will face the representatives of people of India.”Gandhi warned Kumar and said “You have taken this game outside the legal framework, into rigging elections, you are our target.”While mock Parliaments are a common platform to raise public interest issues, this is the first time, the symbolic exercise had been used to attack a Chief Election Commissioner, a constitutional post.Mallikarjun Kharge's chargesCongress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who opened the debate, said, the motion aims to safeguard the dignity of a constitutional institution.“We hold no personal animosity toward the CEC; our objective is to ensure that the Election Commission functions impartially, in alignment with the spirit of the Constitution, and retains the trust of the common citizen.

We must prevent the voting rights of marginalised sections, women, and the youth from being surreptitiously deleted via a computer by someone sitting in Delhi,” he said.Kharge argued that no one is advocating for the retention of deceased individuals on the electoral rolls. “Remove the names of anyone who should not be there. However, provide the data—state exactly how many such individuals exist.

The Modi government repeatedly uses the pretext of ‘infiltrators’ to mask its own failures and misdeeds,” he said.He further accused that since 2014, the Modi government has “orchestrated every possible scheme to cling to power—stealing mandates, fracturing political parties, toppling elected governments, utilising Electoral Bonds, and weaponizing agencies like the ED and CBI.”“Now, they have resorted to ‘Vote Chori’ (theft of votes)—stripping away the votes of the opposition to consolidate their rule.

There are hundreds of instances of such ‘Vote Chori’,” Kharge said.Opposition's five-point resolutionThe five-point resolution said that INDIA bloc represents over 60% of the population and the universal adult franchise as enshrined in Article 326 of the Constitution is “under the gravest threat by the actions of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Mr. Gyanesh Kumar.”The charges were that Kumar, has “overseen and participated in a devious and malevolent criminal conspiracy orchestrated by the BJP to steal National and State elections.

He has willingly broken the rule of law by allowing them to access voter’s rolls, to delete and add voters at will and manipulate the outcome of the elections” holding him guilty of operationalizing a premeditated attack on the electoral process.The resolution also said that Kumar is directly responsible for a manipulated, truncated and destructive Special Intensive Revision in a manner that is partisan, opaque and flagrantly violative of natural justice.The Opposition also held the CEC guilty of amending Form 6 and entering into a “criminal conspiracy to prevent the enrolment of first-time voters”.Also Read I ‘Karnataka SIR was done right’: Congress leader Satish Jarkiholi defends voter deletionsThe resolution called it “an act of treason against the nation and the Constitution of India.” It also accused Kumar of illegally centralising control over the electoral rolls, the malicious use of the ERONET/ECINET software and unlawfully excluding the other two Election Commissioners from decision making.“The Chief Election Commissioner…breached his constitutional mandate to act in an independent capacity to ensure free and fair elections and uphold the Constitution of India.He has repeatedly attacked the opposition, denied it hearing, locked the Election Commission of India to prevent leaders from pleading their case and watched in silence as opposition leaders were illegally disqualified, prevented from fighting elections and brutally assaulted on the streets outside his office.

In return for this shameful compliance with the ruling BJP, several of Mr. Gyanesh Kumar’s family members have received benefits and considerations including by way of plum postings and unprecedented opportunities for remuneration,” they a…