At a moment when Rahul Gandhi and the Opposition are on the streets demanding answers from the Election Commission, veteran BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi has invoked the very foundations on which that demand rests: fair elections, accountable government, transparent institutions and the supremacy of the Constitution.
Senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi made a powerful intervention in the ongoing debate over electoral integrity when he told PTI: “A government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth” – a striking invocation of Abraham Lincoln that underscored the primacy of the people, their democratic voice and the fundamental demand for free, fair and just ballots.
That statement lands at a moment when the country is witnessing an escalating confrontation over electoral-roll revisions, with Rahul Gandhi and Opposition parties demanding answers from the Election Commission, while the ECI and government reject allegations of wrongdoing.
The timing is striking. The Supreme Court has already sought responses from the Election Commission, Gyanesh Kumar and the other Election Commissioners over allegations that important decisions relating to SIR were taken without the required collective approval.
Now, on the same day Joshi spoke about fair elections and constitutional accountability, a fresh petition reached the Supreme Court challenging the appointments of Gyanesh Kumar, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, alleging that the statutory appointment procedure was not followed. Those allegations will have to be tested judicially.
The fundamental question is simple: Can a democracy command public trust if citizens are uncertain about the integrity of the electoral process? And the answer cannot come from political slogans alone.
Joshi’s intervention is significant because he placed the debate where it belongs: on the constitutional foundations of democracy, where he strongly endorsed that the ballot belongs to the people, which is what the Opposition is fiercely fighting about.
JANPATH NEWS NETWORK (JNN)
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