PM’s notebandi destroyed economy, EC’s votebandi will destroy democracy: Congress on voter roll revision in Bihar

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday said that after the Prime Minister’s ‘notebandi’ of November 2016 destroyed Indian economy, ECI’s ‘VOTE-Bandi’ in Bihar and other states as reflected in the Special Intensive Revision of electoral Rolls will destroy democracy.

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“Today, the INDIA delegation met the Election Commission on the subject of the Bihar Special Intensive Revision (“SIR”). The Election Commission was literally compelled to meet the delegation after having refused to do so. A few of us could not meet the ECI, which unilaterally imposed a limit of 2 representatives per party. I myself had to hang around in the waiting room for almost two hours,” Jairam said.

He alleged over the last six months, the ECI has conducted itself in a manner which undermines the very basis of our democratic system.

“The ECI is a constitutional body. It cannot routinely refuse requests for a hearing from the Opposition. It must abide by the principles and provisions of the Constitution. Most importantly, it cannot dictate arbitrary rules for interacting with political parties such as deciding the designation of those attending or the number who can attend or who is or isn’t an authorized person,” the Congress leader said.

Jairam added that when the delegation rejected these new rules as arbitrary and confused, the Election Commission informed it this is a ‘New’ Commission.

“We shudder to think what this ‘New’ Commission’s gameplan is. How many more Master(s)strokes can we expect?” Jairam said.