- 6 minutes ago
INDIA bloc leaders conducted an unprecedented public impeachment-style proceeding against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar at Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge's residence. The opposition levelled serious allegations against the CEC, including conspiring to steal elections, deleting 13.2 crore voter names during the Special Intensive Revision process, amending Form 6 without parliamentary approval, and acting at the behest of the ruling dispensation. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi called for Gyanesh Kumar to be tried for treason, arguing that illegal deletions cast doubt on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Speaking on India Today, Congress leader Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi defended the mock parliament, citing the denial of parliamentary discussion and alleging significant omissions in the Election Commission's response. The Bharatiya Janata Party hit back, calling the proceedings a 'parliament of theatrics' and accusing the opposition of undermining constitutional institutions. Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury asserted the protest reflected public outrage over disenfranchisement, affirming that opposition leaders intend to escalate the issue.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Good evening, you're watching India Today and I'm Mariya Shaquille.
00:03India Block leaders have passed a motion impeaching the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar.
00:11And this happened at a public impeachment-style proceeding which was organized at Congress Chief Malik Arjun Khargay's residence.
00:18Rahul Gandhi led the opposition's attack, saying that Gyanesh Kumar must be tried for treason.
00:23He argued that if 13.2 crore names which have been removed during the SIR process are illegal, then so
00:31is the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
00:34The Lok Sabha leader of opposition insisted that anyone involved in vote chori will not be spared.
00:41Congress Chief Malik Arjun Khargay introduced the motion, laying down the charge sheet against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
00:48The opposition's charges included that he conspired to steal elections, that Gyanesh Kumar was involved in deletion of 13.2
00:58crore voters.
00:59He rewrote Form 6 without Parliament's approval, seized electoral rolls through ECINET, ignored the complaints of other two election commissioners
01:10and acted at the behest of Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
01:14But the BJP has hit back, saying, calling the mock parliament proceedings a parliament of theatrics.
01:22Listen in to all the reactions that have come in.
01:26This had to happen, it was important that this happened, because this is a test of the union of India,
01:36this is a test of the spirit of the people of India, and I'm confident they're going to overcome this,
01:41like they've overcome everything before.
01:46Speaker Madam, thank you for letting me speak on this important subject.
01:53I fully support the notion that Mr. Gyanesh Kumar should not only be impeached, Mr. Gyanesh Kumar should be tried
02:01in a court of law, tried for treason and justice should be served.
02:06You have taken this game into rigging elections, Mr. Modi and Mr. Shah might be on top, we will deal
02:14with them, but you are their instruments, and so you are our first target, and so this political weapon is
02:24aimed at these people, and whoever these people are, they should realize that this is not just some talk taking
02:31place in the garden, this is aimed at you.
02:35And this group of people, and this group of people, this political weapon is going to give justice to the
02:42youngsters of India, to the people of India, this is our sacred, this is not just something we want to
02:47do, this is our sacred duty for the constitution for the people of India, we are left with no choice
02:55but to do this.
02:56We are left with no choice but to do this.
03:08We are left with no choice but to do this.
03:35Thank you very much.
03:54We are talking about the government to change the government.
04:00I would like to ask that the government is changing the government
04:03or changing the government to change the government.
04:22Dr. Singh B, the opposition held an unprecedented mock parliament
04:26to highlight what it calls serious irregularities in the electoral process.
04:32What was the central objective of this exercise, sir?
04:35And what concrete outcome does the opposition hope to achieve beyond political messaging?
04:44Sir, you have to unmute yourself.
04:47Thank you, Maria.
04:48Let me make it clear that there is huge resonance,
04:53a tremendous amount of energy and momentum and direction in what happened today.
04:58So I want you to step back for five seconds and ask yourself the question,
05:02why is it that in 79 or 80 years of our independence,
05:05we have never felt the need to have this?
05:10It cannot be everything wrong only with those who are having it.
05:13You cannot imagine the kind of unanimous view across the political spectrum.
05:19Thirty-four-odd speakers, twenty-odd political parties.
05:24Some of them, two people spoke from one party.
05:26Over nine or ten civil society or other people,
05:30unconnected with politics, experts, domain experts, NGOs.
05:35This outpouring of view, this outpouring of bhavana, of emotion,
05:41shows that there is something very rotten in the state which we call the election commission,
05:48in the state of Denmark.
05:50And everybody can't be wrong with the same feeling.
05:52Also, it is a reflection of the fact that we do not get the legitimate fora which we need in
06:00a true democracy
06:01to ventilate these genuine grievances.
06:03Perhaps if you had an actually functioning parliament in the sense that a speaker and the ruling party
06:10gave you a fair amount of time for burning issues of the nation,
06:14issues which are burning the youth, issues which are burning women,
06:17issues which are of great current contemporary resonance,
06:20you would not need a mock parliament.
06:22But you know, you blame us for disruption.
06:25The moment we go and move an adjournment motion or a short discussion motion,
06:30the government says no, you won't discuss it.
06:33So what do we do?
06:35You then go to the protest streets.
06:37Then you are told no, no Jantar Bantar.
06:41Go to Ramlila and in Ramlila I am told that you cannot march nearby Ramlila,
06:47but you can go to Ramlila.
06:49Then if you have protest, you have tear gas, you have assaults.
06:53Now all this creates a situation where in a very ironic but a poor and a sad sense,
07:00a manner of speaking, you have to find Mr. Kharge's garden,
07:04which luckily is large enough to have these 300 odd people.
07:08Okay.
07:08You wouldn't need it if you had a proper institution functioning.
07:11Dr. Singhree, the Election Commission of India has filed an affidavit.
07:16As a senior counsel, I'm asking this question.
07:19As an, you know, you would have read that affidavit and the ECI has defended its actions
07:25and has contested several of the allegations leveled against it,
07:29and many of those are the charges which figure in the list of charges
07:34that were there against Ganesh Kumar.
07:37Having examined the commission's response, Dr. Singhree,
07:40where do you believe its arguments actually fall short?
07:44And is there a substantive legal issue that the ECI has not adequately addressed?
07:50As a matter of fact, Maria, the affidavit conceals more than it reveals
07:56and in fact contains several implied and even I would say explicit admissions.
08:04By not answering directly or by circumventing a direct answer,
08:10there is actually an admission, what lawyers call an admission by non-denial specifically.
08:16Take for example the fact that you had a Form 6 where you added a supra-added condition.
08:24Now that is virtually admitted that the condition we added was not there in the Form 6.
08:30But then you ask the next question, who authorized it?
08:34You don't have an answer to that in the affidavit.
08:36You ask a question, tell us, they gave a bland statement that everybody authorized the SIR.
08:43But they do not tell you which date, what minutes, what even by circulation minutes,
08:48which written authorization collectively says that Mr. Singhree sends a circulation motion to Maria
08:55and Maria sends a third person and they all three sign and say we can have an SIR.
08:58So these are huge gaps in the affidavit which lawyers call admission by implication because there is no answer.
09:05There is not a single minute of a single resolution on any of the three or four major exposés by
09:13the Indian Express.
09:15The exposé about not meeting to decide this, the exposé about not meeting to file the appeals.
09:21Now look at the remarkable answer.
09:23Sixteen lakh appeals, they say, are filed in Bengal without any...
09:27We didn't know about it.
09:28We were the Central Commission.
09:29This was done at the local level.
09:32I mean, this is worse than prevarication directly.
09:36Therefore, I, in a sense, welcome the affidavit.
09:38A proper adjudication would expose huge holes.
09:41And an attempt to completely circumvent and not give direct answer be very evasive.
09:46Which is the last thing you expect.
09:48I can understand a government, it's not a government defending itself.
09:51It's an independent constitutional body supposedly defending itself, which has no reason not to be upfront.
09:56They could have said that we, either by telephoning or by circular resolution, or we did not meet.
10:02But what is the date?
10:04What are the minutes?
10:04It can't be that there are no minutes anywhere.
10:07Today in the mock parliament, Ms. Sagrika Ghosh carried out a bit of a drama showing that,
10:13where are my minutes?
10:14Where are my notes?
10:15And they all searched and nobody could find the notes.
10:17She was doing a mime of what had happened with the election commission.
10:22There are no notes, there are no minutes, there are no documents, there is nothing in writing.
10:25So Dr. Singh, how does the opposition intend to legally challenge these explanations
10:31or what has come in that affidavit?
10:33What evidence can establish that the process was compromised?
10:38First and foremost, I always start by saying, and I repeat it now,
10:42to suggest that everything has a legal solution is itself malicious.
10:47Today what you had was a political process in operation.
10:50You were communicating with the people, of course through people like you, through the media.
10:55You were communicating and sending a message which is a political movement
10:59and that is paramount, not the legal movement.
11:03Secondly, that political abhiyan must carry on, is carrying on.
11:07Tomorrow the rally, whatever happens tomorrow, is a part of that political abhiyan.
11:12Third, law has its limitations.
11:15Law is technical. Law is tardy. Law is time consuming.
11:19Law is full of various procedural hindrances.
11:23So the fact that you may or may not get relief in law is no indication of the justice of
11:28the case.
11:29It is no indication of the correctness of the political movement.
11:33So I think you must keep the two apart.
11:35Of course, there are many issues already in the Supreme Court and they will continue.
11:40And lastly, to answer your question specifically after having given the caveat about legal processes,
11:45is that we will keep on digging hard.
11:48When I appeared last time, I said, please sequester or freeze the records of the election commission
11:55and check and ask for the production of the minutes.
11:58So we are going to ask that.
12:01Now, if there are none, we are going to ask for drawing of an adverse inference by the court
12:06that what Mr. Indian Express said was not incorrect.
12:12Okay.
12:13Dr. Singhvi, you know, you were part of the last march which happened in Central Delhi.
12:19Tomorrow again, there will be a march.
12:21My question then is of what happened today again.
12:25Can the opposition realistically pursue the removal of the CEC?
12:29And what constitutional threshold would it have to meet?
12:33No opposition, no leader like Rahul Gandhi can do more than what Rahul Gandhi is doing.
12:42And the opposition is doing collectively, individually, each party is doing to remove the CEC.
12:50Now, in a democracy, you cannot go and catch somebody's throat and throw him out of a seat.
12:54We don't believe in that.
12:57But we are exhorting, we are shaming, we are communicating, and we are legally proceeding.
13:04What do you do?
13:05If you, Maria Shakil, has a brute majority and don't admit any impeachment motion, what do I do?
13:12Can I catch somebody's throat?
13:13No, I can only go to the people, I can only go in a mock parliament, I can only go
13:17in a rally.
13:17And to the limited extent I can, I can go in court.
13:21We all understand that even courts do not have the power to impeach.
13:25Maybe they have the power to make strictures or comments of a kind which will lead to his resignation.
13:30But ultimately, no system can do more than what this system in the opposition side is doing at multiple levels.
13:39There is a separate NGO movement, call it, students movement, call it, CGP movement, call it.
13:44There is a political momentum going on separately.
13:47There is a legal case going on separately.
13:49There are rallies in places like Maidan and this mock parliaments.
13:54Now, what more do you expect?
13:56There has to be some shame in democracy.
13:58There has to be some respect for principle in democracy.
14:00Now, if you are thick-skinned enough not to have any shame, then you have to just wait
14:04and expect that there will be some reaction and some shame sometime.
14:09All right, Abhishek Manu Singh, we appreciate your time, sir.
14:11Thank you so much for joining us on top of the show.
14:14Let me bring in Sanju Verma, BJP National Spokesperson.
14:17Also, Rajat Sethi, political analyst.
14:19Sanju Verma, what we witnessed today was unprecedented.
14:22Never before that in India or Indian political history has a mock parliament been held in the House of Leader
14:33of Opposition.
14:34What Mr. Singhvi was saying right now is actually summing up what all has been happening,
14:40that there is a civil society movement, there is a political movement and a legal fight.
14:44Is the BJP getting worried of the larger culmination, what it can have, the impact?
14:51You know, Maria, so I was listening to Mr. Singhvi, and I just have to say this.
14:56When he says that there is no space for the opposition during routine parliamentary proceedings,
15:01you know, Rahul Gandhi is not given an opportunity to vent, you know, his voice is cuddled.
15:09Impeachment proceedings are not admitted.
15:11Mr. Singhvi also mentioned that.
15:13I think Mr. Singhvi has forgotten.
15:14And very humbly through your show, I would like to suggest, Maria, do remember that ahead of Lok Sabha 2024
15:20elections,
15:21in August 2023, Gaurav Gogoi had moved a no-confidence motion against the Modi government.
15:28And guess what?
15:30At the peak of the debate, because the debate was all about Manipur.
15:34They said, we don't trust this government with respect to Manipur.
15:37So we are moving a no-confidence motion.
15:40When Prime Minister Modi started speaking, Rahul Gandhi was not there.
15:45Priyanka Padra was not there in the House.
15:47Gaurav Gogoi, who had moved the no-confidence motion against this sitting government of the day,
15:52was to be seen nowhere.
15:54So the basic limited point I'm making is that the opposition, instead of casting aspersions at the ruling dispensation,
16:02needs to do some Atma Chintan, needs to do some Atma Mantan.
16:06And tell me honestly, each time Rahul Gandhi has wanted a debate on supposedly crucial issues,
16:13the government of the day has always been willing to engage.
16:16I will just very quickly, without being verbose, let you know,
16:20when Rahul Gandhi wanted a discussion on abrogation of Article 370,
16:23we said yes, he went MIA.
16:26Rahul Gandhi wanted a discussion on CAA, we said yes, he went MIA.
16:30Rahul Gandhi even wanted a discussion on the revocation of instant triple talaq.
16:35We said yes, he went MIA.
16:37Rahul Gandhi wanted a discussion on inflation, unemployment, money poor,
16:41even on the Ram Janma Brumi Mandir issue, before the Supreme Court verdict came in.
16:47We said yes to every topic that he wanted a dialogue with the government.
16:54But he is the one who has been MIA.
16:56You cannot do shoot and scoot politics, if as the leader of the opposition he wants to be taken seriously.
17:03Let's bring in Rajat also on the screen, please.
17:05Why is his average attendance in the last three Lok Sabha sessions 37% vis-a-vis all India average
17:13of 79.6%?
17:15I mean, can Rahul Gandhi explain why he is MIA all the time?
17:19Okay.
17:20He said, even after demonetization.
17:22Because I remember the demonetization debate went for months together.
17:27Much after it happened.
17:28You know, I will come back to you.
17:30Sanjeev, I want to understand from Rajat Sethi if he knows what MIA means.
17:34I think it's very cool.
17:36Missing in action, right?
17:39Of course.
17:40Of course.
17:41Rajat, you know, the fact that the BJP is also fighting against the Congress on the streets.
17:48Many would say that the arena here is being chosen by the Congress party because they realize that they do
17:54not want to fight it out in the parliament.
17:57They would be rather holding protests against the BJP and the government today and day before and tomorrow and the
18:05day after.
18:06It will be only competitive narrative setting on the streets.
18:10That's what we'll be witnessing.
18:13So, Maria ji, I'll try and explain to you from the sweet irony around which Singhvi Sahab was just speaking
18:23a while back.
18:24It was coincidentally Singhvi ji himself who pointed that in Telangana, I believe that there are 30 or 40 lakh
18:32illegal voters.
18:34In fact, he and his party had been saying that there are around 50 lakh illegal voters in the state
18:41of West Bengal.
18:43Now, things have turned and this is what is so ironical.
18:46A person who earns his bread and butter respectfully, Singhvi ji, has been over the past two, three weeks, has
18:56been lambasting courts.
18:57He's like, let us not go to courts.
19:00I mean, an institution and you should owe your bread and butter to an institution like the Supreme Court.
19:07And on channels, on A&I and all of these interviews, you go out and say, hey, let's not go
19:12to the courts because you will not find justice in the courts.
19:14Let's hit the streets.
19:15So, the essence of the thing is that you do not want to prove on a neutral constitutional bodies like
19:24the Supreme Court or even when you attempted going to the president, you should have presented the proofs.
19:30You did not do that.
19:31My simple submission here is that BJP is very happy.
19:34They are very happy that a non-people's issue of the SIR has been taken up because then the genuine
19:41issues which you could have brought to the foray have been sidelined.
19:44This is done to the whims of one prince who just suddenly feels that all Andhome Kana Raja, like all
19:51the people around him have lost the election and suddenly he can become the leader of the India Alliance.
19:56That's the heart of it.
19:57This is the reason why Achilles Shahdav and a bunch of very matured opposition leaders are focusing on the ground.
20:04They know that SIR is a reality that doing all of this drama of mock parliament, etc. is not going
20:09to yield them anything.
20:10Today, I was surprised to see they did a mock parliament.
20:14Tomorrow, they will publish a mock constitution and then put up a mock chair, a white towel they will spread
20:20and sit on it and they'll say that, okay, this is mock prime minister's chair.
20:23Let them be happy on a mock prime minister's chair.
20:26But Rajat, you know, I am going to take that question to Sanju Verma.
20:31Sanju Verma, if the opposition indeed does that, you know, first a public impeachment of a constitutional authority like an
20:41election commission.
20:41And if it is followed by what Rajat Sethi is saying, isn't that a matter of concern for you?
20:48You are in power.
20:50Let's be very honest.
20:52You are a very seasoned journalist and you know this very well that since 2014, ever since Narendra Modi took
20:59charge at the helm of affairs, all I have been hearing is, you know, and this is not with offence
21:05to you, Mario.
21:05I do a zillion debates and if BJP wins, the questions are asked of BJP.
21:11If BJP loses, the questions are asked of BJP.
21:15If Rahul Gandhi wins, questions are not asked of Rahul Gandhi.
21:19If Rahul Gandhi loses, questions are still not asked of Rahul Gandhi.
21:22Rahul Gandhi is being treated by the Darbari ecosystem as the next best thing after brown bread and spaghetti.
21:29No, but you are also responding to Rahul Gandhi, right, Sanju Ji?
21:34No, Mariya Ji, one minute, one minute.
21:36I want to say one thing.
21:38I am sure you are aware of this, but this needs to be reinforced.
21:41In addition to what Rajat said, India is one of the very few, I think it is perhaps the only
21:48parliamentary democracy where you have something called the zeroer.
21:53During question hour, if you need to raise an issue from the opposition's side or even from the treasury benches,
22:00you ideally need to give to the speaker or the chair of the house a 10-day notice.
22:04You know, wide rule 255, 256, 267, blah, blah, blah.
22:07I fail to understand that zeroer is such an innovation which is specific only to India's parliament and it is
22:17a tool which actually the opposition should be using to make the government of the day accountable because you don't
22:24need to give an advance notice.
22:26But remember, in the last so many sessions, winter session, monsoon session, budget session, zeroer normally commences at 12 in
22:37the afternoon.
22:37Just like the people starts or Rajasama starts, by 10-30-11, there is a breaking news.
22:44Parliament adjourned for the day, Lokasama adjourned for the day, Rajasama adjourned for the day.
22:48What I am trying to tell you is why has Rahul Gandhi not utilized zeroer?
22:52Why has Priyantravadra not utilized zeroer to raise, you know, credible questions when they feel that their voice is not
22:59being heard?
23:07Why are you not using the parliamentary, you know, procedures available to you?
23:15And what is this entire gibberish about having a mock parliament?
23:19As Rajasama said, we are going to have a mock judicial proceeding. Is that how democracy will work?
23:29Oh, you know, street veto can never replace the democratic ethos of the country.
23:34And I am reminded of Yogendra Yadav.
23:36Because I think everybody is taking a leaf out of his book when he said a couple of months back,
23:44So I want to tell Yogendra Yadav and the entire Darbari ecosystem, which, you know, is observant to his rants,
23:54that there will not be a decision on the streets, there will be a decision on the southern.
23:58And if you have a decision on the southern, you can knock on the doors of the court.
24:04But do not try to undermine the judicial process, the parliamentary procedures, by having this tamasha.
24:11This is nothing more than a tamasha, Maria.
24:13Sanju Verma and Rajasati, really appreciate your time, because I'm sure our next guest has heard all that has been
24:19said by you.
24:20So I'm going to take those questions to Renuka Chaudhary, member of parliament of the Congress Party,
24:26former Women and Child Development Minister, a veteran Congress leader, I would say.
24:31Renuka ji, the BJP is saying that you are making mockery of institutions.
24:38If you're not able to win elections, you start mocking a constitutional authority like the Chief Election Commissioner.
24:45Next, if you're not able to get a favorable judgment, you will start mocking judiciary.
24:56It is a direct reflection in right proportion of their fear and terror.
25:03They are shrill, and they are panicking, and they will continue to make mistakes.
25:09Because this is an unjust, illegitimate government sitting there.
25:15They have misused every institution that has been established.
25:21They have fudged the entire electoral roll system, and they will talk like this.
25:27We went to the EC, just to remind them in case they don't know.
25:31We went to the courts.
25:33We went to the Rashtrapati.
25:35We have tried every fora available to put this out democratically.
25:41And what have we done?
25:44Whatever words they're using, it's ridiculous.
25:47We have used the principle of democracy by the people, of the people, for the people.
25:56And then there is the parliament itself.
25:58You are a member of parliament.
26:01Rahul Gandhi is a member of parliament.
26:03You have the parliament resolutions and options.
26:07They're talking.
26:08They're all preaching.
26:10Yes, yes, nothing happened.
26:12Nothing happened.
26:13Impeachment we tried in parliament.
26:15They didn't allow it.
26:17So this kind of bulldozing that this government indulges in.
26:21They've realized they've reached the end of the road.
26:24I want to tell you, I have given 20 notices.
26:28Zero hour notices in parliament.
26:32I'll show you the proof.
26:34Mysteriously, none of mine are accepted.
26:37Not a single one was I permitted to speak.
26:40An entire session.
26:42Im not allowed.
26:43So what is the recourse for someone like me?
26:46I get back to the people.
26:49Because that is what democracy is about.
26:52So let them rant and revo.
26:54We'll have mock judiciary.
26:56You have made a mockery of all these institutions.
27:00You will go and arrest a young child in Kanyakumari because they said something about the prime minister.
27:06But the prime minister of this country doesn't come to parliament.
27:09He will not address a single press conference.
27:13He'll travel all over the world when Manipur is burning.
27:16They humiliate women in parliament and outside.
27:21Somebody, somebody's Pachasko Arurka girlfriend.
27:23Somebody, I am Surpanaka.
27:25Which my dear brother, the prime minister will say because he recognizes familial traits.
27:32And this is the kind of government.
27:34And they have the audacity to question us and talk to us.
27:37Now these, see the fraud that they indulge in.
27:40They told us, we said Jantar Mantar.
27:43They said, no, we've removed that.
27:45Ah, bitterly, middle of the night, they've changed their mind.
27:48No Jantar Mantar anymore.
27:50Where do we go?
27:51Go to Ramleela.
27:52So we applied for Ramleela.
27:54They gave us permission for Ramleela.
27:56And suddenly all business houses are writing letters to us.
28:00Why are you asking us?
28:01Ask the government.
28:02They didn't know that there are shops there.
28:05They didn't know that business will get affected.
28:08Why did they recommend Ramleela?
28:10This is how this government works.
28:12Then they're blaming us.
28:14We are anarchists.
28:15Now we don't have permission to walk on the road.
28:18You can go to Ramleela, but you can't walk.
28:20How do we reach the aeroplane?
28:22Renuka, ma'am.
28:23They'll give us tangas.
28:25Renuka, ma'am.
28:26My question is…
28:27What is it?
28:27My question is…
28:28So I'm asking.
28:29Yes.
28:30My question now will be that you have been raising the issue of special intensive revision on multiple platforms.
28:38It started with the Supreme Court petitions, then moved to the streets.
28:42Yes.
28:43Rahul Gandhi is consistently saying that there is vote chori.
28:46Yes.
28:46But here is Home Minister Amit Shah, who proposes a special session of parliament to discuss vote chori.
28:52Will the Congress be open to such an idea?
28:54Why not take up this entire issue on the floor of the house?
28:57What we saw at Mr. Khargay's home, have it on the floor of the house, let it be part of
29:01house records.
29:02We never…
29:04We have…
29:06We have…
29:07We have not denied that.
29:08We have not refused it.
29:10But when did they come up with this proposal?
29:12They have kept parliament without praruging it.
29:15It's the first time I'm seeing so many days that the parliament is not praruged.
29:19We are on to the heels of a winter session.
29:22I don't even know if there will be one.
29:24And this is how they operate.
29:26And so suddenly last night they wake up and say, oh, but let's discuss it in parliament.
29:32Why didn't you all these days?
29:34You had an entire session where there was disruption.
29:38Why didn't you call for it?
29:39Why didn't you say, okay, let's stop all this.
29:42Let's get on.
29:42This is the subject.
29:43Single point agenda, SIR.
29:46You think all those citizens who came today and spoke in that, they're all liars.
29:51They're citizens who were handed their death certificates while they're alive and kicking in front of the EC.
29:57I mean, isn't this bizarre?
30:00This is ridiculous that you treat your citizens like this.
30:05Thirteen crored people.
30:08This government has no experience.
30:10Do they understand the consequences of that?
30:13If these citizens are disenfranchised now, you have stolen their right.
30:19You have forged and fudged documents.
30:23You have violated every norm of the constitution.
30:28And you are denied.
30:29Where will they go?
30:31They can't get jobs.
30:32Now, I don't know in this country.
30:34Who are we?
30:35Who's going to certify who we are?
30:37We are dimagi naksals.
30:40At least you recognize we have a dimag.
30:42Can't say the same about you.
30:44But what are we?
30:46How do you recognize us?
30:48Tomorrow you'll turn around and say all of you are members of parliament don't have their vote right while he's
30:54sitting in parliament.
30:55Come on.
30:57I mean, forget this ruling and opposition business.
31:00Please recall.
31:02The world is watching us.
31:05The youth are watching us.
31:07And I have 30 seconds for you, ma'am.
31:08I have 30 seconds.
31:09There's turmoil all over.
31:10In 30 seconds, please respond what will follow this.
31:13This was high on optics, high on political messaging.
31:20What is, sorry, I didn't get that.
31:23I'm saying what will, what now?
31:25Because an election commissioner can be impeached only through a proper process.
31:35If the government has the audacity or the courage, let them go through the proper process.
31:42We'll do what now is something I won't tell on TV.
31:45What now is what we'll do and we'll show.
31:48Secret.
31:48The government has to, the government has to decide.
31:50It's not our responsibility.
31:52If one Gyanesh is more valuable to them than Bharat Desh, then let it, let them make it clear.
31:59We'll take it from there.
32:01All right, veteran Congress leader, Renuka Chaudhary.
32:05Always a pleasure speaking to you, ma'am.
32:07Thank you so much for your time here on India Today.
32:10That's all from me on this special broadcast.
32:13Thanks so much for watching.