· Kharge suggests, Bharat Jodo Yatra like campaign for ballot papers
· Accuses Adani of distributing money for BJP in Maharashtra elections
AMN / NEW DELHI,
The Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge today said that his party will launch a movement in favour of introducing ballot papers for elections in the country.
Choosing not to comment on the merit/ demerit of EVM, Kharge asked the BJP leaders to keep the machine in their godowns.
He suggested that there should be a campaign like the Bharat Jodo Yatra, which was led by Rahul Gandhi.
Addressing the Samvidhan Rakshak Abhiyan function at the Talkatora Stadium here today, the Congress president suggested that the votes being cast by the SCs, the STs and were going waste in the current system of voting through EVMs.
“We don’t want EVMs. Leave them. We will vote on the ballot papers”, he said, while challenging the BJP and Modi without taking their names, “give us the paper ballot and you will realise where you stand and what is your condition”.
Kharge observed that the Congress should launch a campaign for this purpose and appealed to other political parties also to join this campaign.
The Congress president accused Adani of distributing his money in Maharashtra to help the BJP. He observed that Modi had given him so much wealth that he cannot digest all of it and he was distributing it in elections for the BJP.
Accusing the BJP of destroying the constitution and the constitutional values, he said, “they have no constitutional values, no institutional integrity, no federal character and whatever is in the constitution they are trying to destroy one by one”.
He said, while the constitution guaranteed freedom of speech and freedom of religion, during the last eleven years of the BJP rule, there was neither freedom of speech nor freedom of religion and only “kaato aur baato” (divide and kill).
He asserted, the Congress will never let that happen. “Nobody will be divided or die in the name of religion. We will protect and defend the country together”, he assured.
Kharge said, the plight of the untouchables was the worst while pointing out how an Adivasi was urinated on his face, how women were being raped and how the dalit grooms were humiliated and intimidated in case they rode a horse during the wedding.
Kharge congratulated the people of the country for preventing Narendra Modi from becoming a dictator had he won 300 or 400 plus seats as they ended up winning just 240 seats. He said, Modi was now standing on two crutches of Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar. The moment even one crutch is taken out, Modi will fall, he remarked.
He took a dig at the BJP and its leaders for accusing the Congress of trying to divide people. He reminded the BJP that their leader Syama Prasad Mookerjee had formed a government in alliance with the Muslim League in Bengal before the partition of the country.
He said Congress leaders like Ms Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi had sacrificed their lives to keep the country united. “What is your contribution?” he asked the RSS and the BJP.