Leaders of several opposition parties have alleged that the Election Commission is working like “an agent of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)”. Mamata Banerjee, Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Tejashwi Yadav and Asaduddin Owaisi have alleged that the EC is working at the behest of the BJP while revising voters’ lists. On July 16, Mamata Banerjee led a padyatra in Kolkata to allege that Bengali-speaking people from her state are being forcibly kept in detention camps in BJP-ruled states by describing them as Bangaldeshis. She alleged that the names of more than 32 lakh voters have been struck off from the electoral lists in Bihar. She warned people that EC may carry out a Bihar-type electoral revision exercise in West Bengal too.
Meanwhile, a delegation of Bengal BJP leaders met the Chief Electoral Officer in Kolkata and demanded that Special Intensive Revision (SIR) be carried out in Bengal immediately to weed out Rohingya infiltrators who have acquired voter I-cards. The BJP delegation demanded an immediate house-to-house search of Rohingya infiltrators, who entered the state via Nepal and Bangladesh and have settled in North and South 24-Pargana districts.
Mamata Banerjee’s focus is quite clear. She is preparing the agenda for next year’s assembly elections in Bengal. Significantly, she did not mention Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs or Christians in her speech, and her focus on Bengali-speaking people and “Bangla pride”. One must understand that the BJP during the last five to ten years had been aggressively launching the Hindutva campaign and had made Muslim appeasement as a core issue. Mamata knows that her party is sure to get the Muslim votes, but if her party loses some per cent of Hindu votes, then electoral equations may get muddled. To keep Hindu voters with her, she has launched the issue of Bengali pride. People of Bengal are very sensitive towards their culture and language.
Mamata’s attack on the BJP can be understood, but attacking the Election Commission is not justified. It does not behove the dignity of a chief minister who has been in power for the last 14 years. She won the mandate in three assembly elections that were conducted by the EC. Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday alleged that the EC has been caught "red-handed" stealing votes in the name of Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar. He asked whether the EC has become the BJP's 'Election chori branch'. Rahul Gandhi alleged that the names of farmers, labourers and poor people are being removed from the electoral list in Bihar, and a similar exercise is going to happen in Assam.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi alleged that names of lakhs of migrant voters will be removed from the electoral list in Bihar, while RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav alleged that, on an average, nearly 3,000 names of voters will be removed from each assembly constituency in Bihar to help the BJP win the polls. The Election Commission said the revision, being held after 22 years in Bihar, will cleanse the voters' list of ineligible people, duplicate entries and include those eligible as per law to vote.
It seems that the immediate provocation behind the hue and cry by the opposition is the circulation of several videos from places like Darbhanga, Begusarai and Gaya. Firstly, in Darbhanga, a video was circulated about a BJP leader sitting with a booth-level officer and a Congress leader alleging that names from electoral lists are being weeded out. The fact is, the BJP leader Kavita Singh had gone there to submit the forms for her and her family members.
Secondly, in Begusarai, a BLO, Wazahat Ali Farooqui, was shown alleging that his senior lady officer was pressurising him to submit all the 1,382 forms given to him, but he had only submitted two. An audio recording claimed the lady officer was asking the BLO to fill out the form himself and upload it without any verification. The BLO was suspended.
Thirdly, in Gaya, a school teacher working as BLO was shown taking Rs 40 as ‘bribe’ for submitting the forms of voters. The BLO was later removed for taking bribes, and an order has been issued to stop his salary. The allegations that Tejashwi Yadav is levelling about BLOs relate to bribery, dishonesty and shirking duty. Let me state how much work the Election Commission has done till now.
In the last 16 days, verification of nearly 94 per cent of voters in Bihar is complete. By Wednesday evening, 6 crore 99 lakh 92,926 out of a total of 7.9 crore voters in Bihar have submitted their documents. In the entire state of Bihar, 35 lakh 69,435 voters were not found at their residence shown in the electoral list, 17 lakh 37,336 voters have permanently shifted, and 5 lakh 76,479 voters have been found who had voter ID from more than one place. 12 lakh 55,620 voters have died. The Election Commission has said that the names of voters that will be deleted will be given to political parties, which can get these verified within seven days and inform the EC if there are any discrepancies. Before publishing the final list, the EC would remove all discrepancies in the list. It is good that the EC, instead of joining issues with political parties, is carrying on with its special intensive revision. Political parties which are opposing this exercise will get eight days’ time to tell the EC if they find any discrepancies.
History Books: Shivaji should be a hero, not Aurangzeb
A fresh controversy has arisen over some changes made in the Class 8 Social Science textbook published by NCERT. AIMPLB (All India Muslim Personal Law Board) spokesperson Qasim Rasool Ilyas has alleged that historical facts are being distorted to portray Muslim rulers in a bad light.
The new NCERT textbook describes Mughal emperor Babur as a “brutal and ruthless conqueror, slaughtering entire populations of cities”, Akbar’s rule as a “blend of brutality and tolerance”, and Aurangzeb as a ruler who destroyed temples and gurdwaras.
Part 1 of this textbook, ‘Exploring Society: Indian and Beyond’ was released this week for use in the ongoing academic session. The NCERT has explained the rationale behind this in a “Note on Some Darker Periods in History,” and one of the chapters in the book includes a cautionary note that “no one should be held responsible today for events of the past”.
Dinesh Prasad Saklani, director of NCERT, has said, “all historical facts and evidence mentioned in the textbook are based on historical sources and texts like Baburnama, Benares Gazetteer, Maasir-e-Alamgiri written by Saqi Mustaad Khan and translated by historian Sir Jadunath Sarkar, ‘The History and Culture of the Indian People’ written by historian R.C.Majumdar, etc.” Saklani said, “The rulers of the Mughal Empire, especially Aurangzeb, have been described in detail in ‘Muntakhab-ul-Lubab’ written by Muhammad Hashim Khaafi Khan. The textbook has presented facts in a balanced and concise manner so that students not only know facts but also understand their impact in depth.”
The textbook cites examples of religious intolerance during Mughal rule, how temples and places of learning, along with villages, were attacked by Mughal rulers, and facts that were hitherto concealed in order to glorify Mughal rulers have been corrected. Muslim ulemas allege that the BJP is trying to gain political mileage by amending history and portraying Muslim rulers in a bad light. The entire nation knows how Mughals ruled India by wielding swords, how Aurangzeb destroyed Hindu temples and gurdwaras, how Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur and Guru Gobind Singh’s sahebzaade (sons) —Sahibzada Ajit Singh, Jujhar Singh, Zorawar Singh, and Fateh Singh - were killed ruthlessly during Mughal rule. This happened because they refused to change their religion while facing the sword.
Children in schools are not being taught these hard facts of history. Ruthlessness and cruelty by Mughal rulers had been downplayed deliberately, while Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was depicted as the leader of a gang of hit-and-run guerrillas. Akbar was extolled as Akbar the Great, while Maharana Pratap was portrayed as a weak ruler. For decades, students in India were being taught distorted history. Shouldn’t every Indian consider Guru Gobind Singh, Maharana Pratap and Chhatrapati Shivaji as their ideals? Shouldn’t their stories of valour and courage be taught to school children? I think the changes that were made in history books now, should have been done much earlier. History textbooks should be such which can instil pride in our students after reading the tales of valour of our great warriors who fought the ruthless invaders.
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