Thiruvananthapuram: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Monday said the “only conspiracy” underway was to deprive Indian citizens of their democratic and constitutional right to vote, asserting that this must be exposed and destroyed.
Tharoor’s remarks come amid a row following a report by a leading Indian daily that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally raised objections at least 14 times over 10 months, alleging that key decisions were taken in the name of the full Commission without their knowledge.
The Election Commission of India (ECI), however, rejected the suggestion that the reported objections amounted to institutional dissent over final decisions. The poll panel said operational queries, inputs, and suggestions raised during the draft stage were part of its standard administrative and decision-making process.
Speaking to IANS, Tharoor said: “Frankly, the only conspiracy we see is to deprive Indian citizens of their democratic constitutional right to vote. That conspiracy has to be exposed and destroyed. Let every Indian citizen have a vote.”
He said it would be preferable if a small number of people who were not entitled to vote managed to cast ballots rather than allowing a large number of eligible citizens to be deprived of their voting rights.
“It is better that there may be five or ten people who don’t have the right to vote who are voting than that crores of people who have the right to vote are being deprived of the vote. That is a real assault on our democracy,” he said.
Tharoor also spoke about the upcoming Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, saying that he would return on Monday night to attend the discussions.
“Yes, I’m going back tonight too for the CWC meeting. We’re all very concerned about the very serious assault on our democracy that’s been taking place from, unfortunately, the decisions of the Election Commission, which is the body that we had entrusted with the impartial role of protecting our democracy and our electoral process,” he said.
He added that the issue was serious and would be discussed at length at the CWC meeting.
“It’s a very, very serious matter, and a very serious discussion will take place in the Working Committee tomorrow,” Tharoor said.
The Congress MP also shared his views on India’s ODI match against the West Indies, saying he enjoyed watching the game and was pleased with India’s comfortable victory.
Tharoor said he missed the first couple of hours of the match as the Vice President was in town but watched the remainder of the game.
“I must say, it was satisfying for an Indian to win so easily, but I wasn’t totally, totally happy,” he said, noting that he would have preferred a more dominant performance earlier in the match.
He praised cricketer Virat Kohli’s batting towards the end but said India could have scored faster on a flat wicket. He added that the team appeared to be building for the future while ensuring that the basics were in place.
(IANS)
