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'Can you imagine that Surat's voters won't have any say now in exercising their fundamental right to choose a candidate of their own choice? This is what the BJP has reduced India's democracy to.'
'With this ugly act, in one stroke, the BJP has disenfranchised the voters of Surat.'
Manish Doshi -- the Congress' chief spokesperson in Gujarat -- tells Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com how the BJP's "ugly act" in Surat has galvanised his party's rank and file and how the BJP exposed itself before the people of Gujarat when it allegedly used all the powers to have the nomination of the Congress's Surat candidate Nilesh Kumbhani cancelled by the returning officer under the pretext of faulty signatures of the three people who proposed Kumbhani's name.
"The entire system was brought under pressure by the BJP, not just so that one of their candidates wins unopposed, but also to show the people of India a trailer of how they want to murder democracy not just in Surat but in the entire country. Is the entire election machinery under the Election Commission's control or under the BJP's control?", asks Doshi says in the first of a two-part interview.
The district collector of Surat has already awarded the winner's certificate to the BJP's Mukesh Dalal. How does the Congress plan to counter the BJP's victory even before a single vote was cast?
As per the provisions mandated by the Election Commission of India we first asked for a hearing before the Returning Officer (RO), who had objected to the flaws (in the nomination form of the Congress's Lok Sabha candidate from Surat Nilesh Kumbhani). Our legal experts met the RO and explained our position to him, but he refused to accept our contention and rejected our candidate (Kumbhani)'s form.
We were not allowed by the RO to exercise our legal right of cross verifying the proposers (who submitted an affidavit to the RO that they had not signed on Kumbhani's nomination form based on which the RO rejected Kumbhani's candidature), forensic test of signatures, etc. None of our points were considered by the RO.
While we had said that we will be knocking on the doors of the (Gujarat) high court and Supreme Court, but since the form was rejected by the RO, we first made a presentation to the Election Commission in Delhi.
Our senior leaders Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Gurdeep Singh Sappal submitted our representation to the Election Commission. We have legally represented how the RO's action and the district collector's action was totally uncalled for and unjustified and expect the Election Commission to be just and fair and suspend the election result in Surat till the time we don't get justice.
Hasn't the district collector already declared Mukesh Dalal as the winner from Surat?
That is what we want the nation to know. What was the need to rush through with this declaration?
This is exactly what happened in (the mayoral election for) Chandigarh and later the BJP had mud all over its face when their cheating was captured by the CCTV cameras and also when the Supreme Court declared the AAP candidate as the winner.
If the institutions mandated by India's Constitution, act as per the provisions of the Indian Constitution, then the BJP will have mud all over its face in Surat also.
Mark my words, the media is calling the unopposed victory of Mukesh Dalal, blaming it on the Congress' carelessness, a fiasco for the Congress in Gujarat today, but it will ultimately turn out to be a fiasco for the BJP.
Why are you blaming the BJP when the Congress failed to cross verify the proposers before they signed in for Nilesh Kumbhani. Now there are claims coming from the BJP that Kumbhani will join the party. Don't you think that the Gujarat Congress should take responsibility for whatever happened in Surat?
Let me explain the BJP's modus operandi. The affidavits in which the three proposers declared that they had not signed on Nilesh Kumbhani's form came from the office of a notary, who is a known BJP supporter and they were typed at the same office. Every word of the three affidavits is the same.
I can assure you that the people of Gujarat will respond to such dirty politics on May 7 (when the state's Lok Sabha seats go to the polls).
The party trusted Kumbhani, just like the voters do when they vote for any candidate, and so gave him the Lok Sabha ticket and allowed Kumbhani's brother-in-law, nephew and business partner to become the proposers.
But the question that begs an answer is how and why the BJP helped these three proposers draft their affidavits? We asked the Election Commission to allow us to cross verify if these three were telling the truth but our contention was not accepted.
An RO is a not a handwriting expert. It (cancelling a candidate's nomination) doesn't even come under the purview of an RO, but let us assume that even if it were to come under his purview he should have called for a handwriting expert to verify if the signatures on Kumbhani's form were really not theirs (of the three proposers).
The RO used the signature on the (driving) license of these three proposers to come to a conclusion that the signatures on Kumbhani's nomination form did not belong to the three proposers and whatever they had mentioned in their affidavit was the truth.
There was no question of not trusting Kumbhani. The party made him a councillor from Surat; then gave him a ticket to contest the assembly seat from Surat. If you (the media) are questioning us today as to why we trusted Kumbhani then the simple answer is: The BJP is playing dirty with Indian democracy.
They have openly murdered democracy in Surat today and they will be punished massively by the people of Gujarat for this heinous crime.
The district collector and the RO have played their role in this act showing scant regard for established norms and Indian Constitution. The entire election machinery is under pressure (from the BJP) and they are all working to ensure one nation, no election in the days to come.
Look at the way the BJP forced all the seven Independents to withdraw from the race and make it an unopposed election.
What happens to the voice of those voters who would have voted against the BJP? They may or may not have voted for the Congress; they may have voted for any of the seven Independents but there is no way now they can exercise their Constitutional right.
Is this how democracy works? Can you imagine that Surat's voters won't have any say now in exercising their fundamental right to choose a candidate of their own choice? This is what the BJP has reduced India's democracy to.
With this ugly act, in one stroke, the BJP has disenfranchised all the voters of Surat. It (Mukesh Dalal's victory from Surat) is just a sham.
Do you know that BSP candidate Pyarelal, who couldn't be traced from Surat, was traced from Vadodara by the police yesterday (April 21) night and brought to Surat so that he could also withdraw his nomination? What kind of police, under whose pressure, acts in this manner?
The entire system was brought under pressure by the BJP, not just so that one of their candidates wins unopposed, but also to show the people of India a trailer of how they want to murder democracy not just in Surat but in the entire country.
Is the entire election machinery under the Election Commission's control or under the BJP's control? It looks to me that the BJP is controlling it today in the most shameless manner.
Does the Gujarat Congress fear now that such games could be played against its remaining 23 candidates in the state?
In fact, this sorry affair has energised our rank and file in Gujarat to become more alert and fight our opponents.
The entire Congress leadership is fearless now and will pull in all its might and resources to defeat the BJP. This will be the toughest fight the BJP will have ever fought in Gujarat in the last 25 years.
If the BJP engages in such misadventures again it will only benefit us and further help us win more seats in Gujarat.
They have played at their dirtiest best in Surat which will boomerang on them soon. They tried to play a similar game in Banaskantha and Amreli, but failed miserably. The BJP is losing both the seats to the Congress's fighter ladies Geniben Thakor (Banaskantha) and Jeni Thummar (Amreli).
They all tried to get the nomination of INDIA candidate Umesh Makwana's (AAP's sitting MLA from Botad) candidature from Bhavnagar.
They try to nitpick from the forms of our candidates, but shamelessly overlook huge faults in the nominations of BJP leaders like Parshottam Rupala (contesting from Rajkot against the Congress' Paresh Dhanani).
The RO from Rajkot had asked every candidate to file their nominations on a Rs 300 stamp paper, but Rupala brazenly used Rs 50 stamp paper. In fact, there have been at least 16-17 deficiencies in Rupala's nomination form and yet the RO accepted his nomination form.
100 per cent the Election Commission is under pressure to remain a mute spectator as BJP murders democracy in India. All their acts of commission and omission are geared towards helping the BJP.
There is a serious charge against the BJP's Kheda nominee Devusinh Chauhan that he has not paid revenue on the land that he owns. How come the revenue department gave him a no-dues certificate when Chauhan has defaulted on paying land revenue which belongs to the public exchequer? The Election Commission has turned a deaf ear to our complaints against him.