Oppn forces RS adjournment alleging tampering of EVMS

NEW DELHI: Opposition parties on Wednesday forced a brief adjournment of Rajya Sabha proceedings protesting over alleged tampering of EVMS to favour the ruling BJP, even as the government told the Lok Sabha that it was collecting information in this regard and other related issues.

Members of the Congress, SP and BSP trooped into the Well of the Rajya Sabha calling the government a “cheat”, forcing Deputy Chairman P J Kurien to adjourn the proceedings briefly.

The government vehemently denied the charge, saying if anybody had a problem, they could go to the Election Commission (EC) as Parliament was not the forum to agitate.

In the Upper House, Congress and SP members gave as many as four notices under rule 267 seeking suspension of business to take up the issue which the treasury benches vehemently opposed.

Mayawati (BSP) called the ruling party “beiman” (cheat), a comment that led to a ruckus in the House with Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi saying the BSP supremo had “insulted the people of the country and democracy”.

Opposition members protested saying the barb was directed at BJP and not against the people, but the protests from treasury benches led Kurien to say he would expunge such remarks from the records. Angry exchanges were also witnessed between Naqvi and Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Naqvi said the general elections in 2004 and 2009 and the assembly polls in Bihar, Punjab and Delhi where the BJP lost, were all conducted using EVMS and the Congress did not seem to have any objections then.

Azad shot back saying the governments under the Congress rule did not tamper with EVMS and it was only now that such practices have crept in.

The Leader of Opposition said free and fair elections are the foundation of Indian democracy but unfortunately for the first time, doubts have been cast over EVMS.

Azad alleged that a “thief” does not rob the entire house but does it only selectively so as not to get caught. And in this case, the EVMS were manipulated in the largest state of Uttar Pradesh.

He demanded that by-elections in Madhya Pradesh and the coming assembly polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh should be conducted using ballot papers.