Rajat Sharma, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of India TV.
On one hand, while Bharatiya Janata Party is busy in selecting Chief Ministers in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, it seems that Congress and some opposition parties are not able to tolerate this defeat. Congress started raising questions on this victory. Digvijay Singh said that there was a glitch in the EVM. Kamal Nath, who accepted his defeat on Sunday, also changed his tactics. After a meeting with all the winning and defeated candidates in Bhopal, Kamal Nath alleged that there was rigging in the elections. Kamal Nath and Digvijay Singh instructed their party leaders not to accept the defeat but to hold EVMs responsible for this defeat. But DMK MP Senthil Kumar gave the most disappointing statement on BJP’s victory. During a debate in Parliament, Senthil Kumar said that the states where BJP has won the elections are ‘cow urine states’. Senthil Kumar’s statement received sharp attacks from all sides. BJP called it an insult to Sanatan. Central government minister Ashwini Choubey said that the public will teach DMK and Congress a lesson for insulting mother cow. When things started getting out of hand, former Congress MP Milind Deora called the statement unfortunate. Congress MP Karti Chidambaram asked Senthil Kumar to withdraw his statement.
First see what Senthil Kumar said. He said, ‘People of this country should think that the only strength of BJP is to win elections and that too especially in the states of Hindi belt, which we call cow urine states. They can’t win in the South. You see what have been the results of all the southern states, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana and Karnataka. So we are very strong there. In such a situation, we will not be surprised if you make all these states into union territories and rule there from behind the scenes. Because apart from this you cannot even dream of establishing a foothold there and controlling all these states. This statement of DMK MP Senthil Kumar is extremely objectionable. Standing in the Parliament, he was questioning the decision of the voters and insulting the public opinion. The surprise came when some leaders came out of the House and started supporting him. Vaiko, leader of Tamil Nadu party MDMK, said that he is 100 percent in agreement with whatever Senthil Kumar said. Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party MP ST Hasan said, “This is the identity of BJP, BJP takes votes in the name of Hindutva, cow urine is also included in their Hindutva.”
DMK leaders have already given statements against Sanatan Dharma. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s son Udhayanidhi Stalin had also called Sanatan Dharma as malaria and dengue. BJP MP Sushil Modi said that INDIA alliance is certainly anti-Hindu, but the public will not tolerate the insult of Sanatan, it will definitely teach a lesson to the anti-Sanatan parties. The election results came just two days ago. Congress lost in three of these. Congress knows that in these elections, BJP made Udhayanidhi Stalin’s statement and insult of Sanatan a big issue. This also affected the election results. Therefore, as soon as Senthil Kumar’s statement came, Congress leaders started condemning him. Congress MP from Tamil Nadu, Karti Chidambaram termed Senthil Kumar’s statement as unfortunate, unparliamentary and insulting. Said, he should immediately take back his words. Congress leader Milind Deora said that Mother Cow is worshiped by one billion people of this country, DMK will have to understand that such absurd statements cause loss to the allies. Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Choudhary said that Congress worships mother cow and he does not support such statements at all. Union Minister Giriraj Singh said that Congress has just paid the price for the insult to Sanatan by losing in the elections of three states. Now in the next elections the public will teach an even tougher lesson than this.
Union Minister Ashwini Choubey said that DMK leaders are making such statements at the behest of Congress and this country will never tolerate the insult of cow, Geeta and Ganga. In the evening Chief Minister M.K. Stalin asked his MP to take back his words. Senthil Kumar said that he has already said this about the northern states, his statement is on the record of the House, but if anyone has any objection, he will be cautious in future. Will not use such words which can hurt anyone’s sentiments. In a country where mother cow is worshipped, where cow is associated with the sentiments of Hindu society, insulting mother cow is condemnable and shameful. There are wins and losses in elections, but calling the states won by BJP as cow urine states is a sign of a distorted mentality. There is always victory and defeat in elections, but dividing it into North-South is a dangerous trend. If DMK leaders think that by insulting Sanatan and making fun of Mother Cow, they will be able to flourish in the country of Geeta and Gayatri, then they are mistaken. There are temples in South India too, there too there are people who believe in Sanatan, there too Mother Cow is respected, in fact I would say that a better form of rituals and methods of worship can be seen in the temples of South India. That is why such poisonous statements can prove harmful. It was good that Congress leaders distanced themselves from these statements in time and did not support DMK, but Congress expressed its frustration by terming BJP’s victory as an EVM glitch.
Allegation of rigging in EVM
Congress had called a meeting of MLAs, defeated candidates and senior leaders on Tuesday to analyze its defeat in Bhopal. The defeated candidates were asked to explain the reasons for their defeat. Every leader should prepare his separate report but even before the report came, Congress leader Digvijay Singh gave the reason for the defeat. Digvijay Singh said that his party lost due to irregularities in EVMs, EVMs were tampered with, Congress votes were reduced, BJP votes were increased and the result was against Congress. Digvijay Singh said that Congress won in the postal ballot, the button in the EVM was pressed near the Congress symbol and BJP won. Digvijay Singh said that EVMs have chips in them, they can be hacked, that is why he does not trust EVMs at all. Kamal Nath did not speak openly after the meeting. He said that everyone knows what happened, the exit polls were fixed and so were the results.
Kamal Nath raised the question that despite running for 10 hours, how did the EVMs appear 99 percent charged on the day of counting. Kamal Nath questioned that an MLA did not get even 5 votes in his own village, how could this happen? Congress has been defeated, there has been a conspiracy through EVM, now there should be protest against the use of EVM. Congress MLA Phool Singh Baraiya said that BJP worked very cleverly and under a strategy, that is why all the EVMs were not tampered with. Baraiya said that BJP also made the opposition win on some seats, made Congress win in Telangana, so that if someone questions EVM, then say that EVM was hacked, then how did Congress win in Telangana? The interesting thing is that a day after the results came, Congress leaders themselves were saying that their vote bank was intact. If all four states are combined, Congress has got more votes than BJP. Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh tweeted that there is no significant difference in the vote share of Congress and BJP. Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinet also counted the figures that Congress got one million more votes than BJP.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan asked that if there was a glitch in the EVM, then how did Congress win all the seven seats in Kamal Nath’s Chhindwara. Digvijay Singh’s statement that the Congress symbol button was pressed in the EVM, but the vote went to BJP, shows his frustration. This is called – the grumpy cat scratches the pole. Shivraj Singh asked the right question. If there was a glitch in the EVM, then how did Congress win all the seven seats in Kamal Nath’s area? Anyone ask, did Congress win in Telangana due to a glitch in the EVM? Was Congress’s victory in Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh a few months ago due to EVM rigging? Not accepting defeat is an old habit of leaders like Digvijay Singh. Unless the Congress honestly introspects the reason for its defeat, it will not be able to understand why the people in these states did not vote for the Congress. Congress should consider why people did not trust their promises and believed Modi’s guarantees. If we do not understand this, we will not be able to do anything in future and the size of Congress will keep getting smaller. (Rajat Sharma)
Watch: ‘Aaj Ki Baat, With Rajat Sharma’ full episode of December 05, 2023
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