Union Minister of State for Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal on Monday hit out at the opposition for questioning the functioning of constitutional bodies such as the Election Commission of India, EVMs and special intensive revision of voter list to escape blame for their own poll failures.
Speaking during a debate on electoral reforms in the Rajya Sabha, Meghwal, a Congress counsel while quoting a 19th-century Urdu-Persian poet Mirza Ghalib during the debate.
“One person went to Ghalib and said he is working hard but he is not successful. Ghalib told him, ‘Umr bhar je bhool mein jeete rahe Ghalib, dhool chehre pe thi aur hum aayina pochthe rahe’,” he said, adding that “they (Congress) are working hard but not at the right place.”
Invocation of Ghalib
The original Ghalib couplet is “Omr bhar is bhool mein jeete rahe Ghalib, dhool pe chhre pe thi aur hum aina saaf karte karte”. It is often misquoted or slightly paraphrased in speeches and captions, but the thoughts and sentences are attributed to Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib.commonly known as Mirza Ghalib, a famous Indian poet.
“If the neta, niti and niyat (leader, policy and intention) are right, people respond. Our leader’s intention is right, yours may not be,” Meghwal said during the ongoing winter session of Parliament.
Meghwal last week used the same couplet to target the Congress Allegations of ‘stealing votes’ in Lok Sabha.
last week, National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the INDIA bloc traded barbs over electoral reforms and the Special Intensive Review (SIR) in the Lok Sabha, with the government accusing the Congress of trying to hide its poll failures and the opposition claiming the ruling party was indulging in vote-stealing.
Debate on electoral reforms in the Rajya Sabha
Earlier today, the Rajya Sabha resumed the discussion on electoral reforms. Intervening in the debate, Meghwal said the nation was marching towards development under the government Prime Minister Narendra Modi– led the Union Government’s principle of Reform, Perform and Transform.
Meghwal strongly supported the ongoing Exercise SIRthat bogus voters should be removed from the electoral roll. He said that the SIR exercise is being conducted for this purpose. The minister said the government is committed to reforms.
He said the opponents of SIR have forgotten that SIR is based on an idea put forward by SIR founder of Indian constitutionBaba Saheb Ambedkar that universal franchise for adults is based on the principle of “one person, one vote, one value”.
Quoting Ambedkar, Meghwal said the electoral roll revision was based on the principle of one person, one vote, which was the main pillar of electoral reforms.
“Our constitution and electoral process are based on this principle. So when the same thing is being done under SIR to exclude people who are not eligible for electoral rolls, why are they (opposition parties) against it?” asked the minister citing the preference that the SIR was held earlier under different governments,” he said.
The winter session of parliament which started on December 1st will last until December 19th.
