Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Monday rejected comparisons between India, Bangladesh and France, asserting that the Opposition supports peaceful protests and is seeking free and fair elections amid the controversy over the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
Speaking to news agency ANI, Tharoor said, “I think that India is not Bangladesh and India is not France. Rejecting allegations that the Opposition was seeking to topple the government, Tharoor said its demand was for free and fair elections. It’s not an issue of trying to topple a regime or anything like that,” the Congress MP said.
Tharoor’s remarks came after Union Minister Kiren Rijiju alleged that a conspiracy similar to those behind violence in Bangladesh and riots in France had been planned in India. Congress dismissed the comparison, maintaining that its demand concerned electoral integrity rather than regime change. I don’t see these analogies as particularly relevant… We would never condone any of the violence, setting alight buses and police stations and so on, that has occurred in France. We only believe in peaceful protest… that’s the kind of protest that I have participated in, and that I believe the opposition in general supports. This is why we are calling for all this to be undone… It’s a constitutional issue. The Congress’s response came after Union Minister Kiren Rijiju alleged that a conspiracy similar to the violence in Bangladesh and the riots in France had been planned in India.
“As far as the larger issues are concerned, there’s no point distorting a phrase like ‘regime change’ and so on… What we are calling for is free and fair elections… What is troubling today is that large numbers of people have been cut from the electoral rolls as the result of a completely troublesome, irregular, and partially illegal process.
Report examines France’s protest networks
15 of the 50 organisations were student or youth groups, while the remaining 35 included labour unions, communist and socialist organisations, political parties, civil-rights groups and other advocacy organisations, according to the investigation.
