New Delhi, July 4:
The Congress on Friday said democracy faces the “gravest of threats” from the current dispensation, days after opposition parties urged the Supreme Court to take steps to restore the integrity and accountability of the electoral process.
In a letter to the Chief Justice of India, leaders of several Opposition parties had written, saying “democracies turn to anarchies when institutional mechanism fails” and “when the judiciary fails, it indicates a complete breakdown of the Republic”.
The opposition parties demanded that the entire SIR (special intensive revision) process be suspended and launched at a time when the next assembly election is at least five years away. They also raised the alleged misuse of central agencies and sought serious consideration of restoring ballot papers where appropriate.
Sharing the opposition parties’ letter to the CJI in a post on X, Congress general secretary K C Venugopal said the Supreme Court is entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that injustice is not done and the free and fair nature of elections is protected.
“Electoral democracy in our country faces the gravest of threats from the Modi-Shah regime,” he said in his post.
Venugopal said that on June 28, 24 opposition parties, along with an Independent MP, wrote to the CJI on the flawed SIR process, the “partisan role” of the Election Commission of India and other election-related issues.