'Don't contest if you believe polls are rigged': Ashwani Kumar to Congress

Former law minister Ashwani Kumar on Friday counselled his ex-party Congress to stop contesting elections if it truly believed that polls were being stolen in the country.

“You can’t have it both ways. You must walk the talk,” he said during a conversation after the launch of his new book ‘Guardians of the Republic’ by eminent ex-judge Madan Lokur at the Indian International Centre here.

Asked about ongoing opposition accusations that elections are being stolen—a charge led by Rahul Gandhi of Congress—Kumar said the party must not contest if it believes in what it says.

“A party that chooses to accept a favourable verdict and form the government loses moral credibility when it questions the elections and EVMs where it loses.

“If the Congress is truly convinced that elections are rigged, it must say, we will not fight elections. Its whole basis of the challenge gets diluted when it accepts EVM verdicts when the verdicts are favourable and rejects EVMs when it loses,” said Kumar.

He added that the Congress should take a moral high ground by walking the path. “Walk the path else you will have no credentials,” he said.

Asked about the state of his ex-party, Kumar said the Congress has lost the plot and must look inward.

“The Congress is a great party and there can’t be an effective opposition without it. But it has lost the plot. It must look inwards. The BJP is under no obligation to strengthen the Congress.

“Rahul Gandhi is an idealist, but the messaging of Congress has gone wrong. The leaders of Congress have to decide what to do because the Congress has a national obligation to revive itself,” Kumar said.

He also added that the biggest bane of Indian democracy was the disappearance of civility.