NEW DELHI: Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on Monday took a dig at the election commission, remarking, “Chunav aayog (election commission) is chunav aayog, it cannot be ‘churao aayog’ (theft commission).“The senior Congress leader was reacting to the detention of Congress leaders on their way to the election commission’s office on Monday against the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, which the opposition claims is part of a “vote theft” plan ahead of the state assembly polls.Ramesh accused the government of stifling democracy, saying the MPs had planned just a peaceful march from parliament to nirvachan sadan to submit a memorandum on the SIR and other issues. “Our demand was very clear, all opposition MPs wanted to hand over the memorandum together. But we were stopped right in front of parliament, near the PTI building. This is an assault on democracy, its murder,” he said. “This is too clever, cheeky reply by the ECI,” he added. Police blocked the MPs from proceeding and later detained them. Several buses were stationed along parliament street, ready to take the protesters away. They were released later. The opposition has been raising the SIR issue inside parliament for days, alleging that the EC’s exercise is aimed at disenfranchising voters in Bihar. Ramesh had earlier written to the commission seeking a collective meeting with opposition MPs to discuss the revision process and other concerns. “We look forward to meeting with the commission in the highest tradition of parliamentary democracy,” his letter said.
