After the EVM hacking and VVPAT tampering narrative fell flat, the anti-Modi ecosystem has unleashed the next level of fear-mongering to influence the voters against the incumbent Modi government. While anti-Modi and Congress-friendly pen pushers like Andy Mukherjee are writing op-eds fueling the North vs South divide and fear-mongering about EVMs, Yogendra Yadav, the ‘protester of all seasons’ threw his weight behind Sonia Gandhi loyalist Jean Dreze and his fearmongering about the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Quoting a report on Jean Dreze’s interview with PTI, Yogendra Yadav, on the 14th of April, said that “everyone should sit up and take note” when Jean Dreze says that the coming elections are “as good as rigged”.
“Jean Dreze chooses and weighs his words carefully. When he says these elections are “as good as rigged” everyone should sit up and take note,” Yogendra Yadav posted on X.
Jean Dreze chooses and weighs his words carefully. When he says these elections are “as good as rigged” everyone should sit up and take note. https://t.co/YBy6hBUK4t
— Yogendra Yadav (@_YogendraYadav) April 14, 2024
In an interview with PTI on Sunday, Jean Dreze, a development economist and a member of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) said that “under the wave of authoritarianism” and “suppression of Opposition voices” by the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), the Lok Sabha elections commencing on the 19th of April are “as good as rigged”.
Dreze mentioned Arundhati Roy, the leftist propagandist author notorious for her anti-India tirade. He quoted Roy’s old statement that the 2019 Lok Sabha elections were a race between a Ferrari and a few bicycles as a metaphor for the competition between the BJP and the Opposition parties.
“The metaphor is still valid. Today, thanks to the Supreme Court, we know that the Ferrari [BJP] is fuelled by the corporate sector. Meanwhile, the bicycles, symbolising the main opposition parties in the state such as Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress are systematically targeted”, he said.
While Dreze talked about electoral bonds to assert that the ‘Ferrari’, that is BJP, is fuelled by the corporate sector, he failed to mention, probably due to his allegiance to Sonia Gandhi, that 62.66 per cent of those donations went to the opposition parties, including ‘bicycles’ like Congress.
Jean Dreze went on to lament the incarceration of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, former Bihar CM Lalu Prasad Yadav, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification as MP.
“Leaders of these parties have endured relentless scrutiny and harassment by central agencies for years. Former Jharkhand chief minister Soren finds himself behind bars, Lalu Prasad has faced intermittent periods of incarceration, and Rahul Gandhi narrowly avoided a similar fate in addition to Congress’ accounts being frozen. Any politician who presents a danger to the BJP is at risk of harassment. In these circumstances, the elections are as good as rigged,” Dreze claimed.
While accusing the Modi government of ‘scrutinising’ and ‘harassing’ the opposition leaders through central probe agencies and blaming the BJP for Soren and Lalu Yadav’s incarceration, Dreze completely forgot the role of judiciary. In Hemant Soren’s case, he was arrested over involvement in an alleged land scam after the Enforcement Directorate said that it recovered cash worth in excess of Rs 36 lakh from the possession of the JMM leader along with documents linked to the ongoing investigation into the alleged acquisition of land by ‘fraudulent means’. It added that land parcels spanning 8.5 acres were part of the criminal proceeds that the former CM allegedly acquired. Soren was sent into judicial custody by the PMLA court, not the BJP.
Meanwhile, Lalu Yadav who is currently out on bail has been convicted of involvement in multiple scams. Notably, Lalu Yadav was convicted in the Fodder Scam case and sentenced to five years in prison, again by the courts. As we reported earlier, the Special CBI court found Yadav guilty of embezzling public money meant for cattle fodder.
Similarly, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification as a Member of Parliament last year came in accordance with the rules following his conviction in the 2019 criminal defamation case in March last year. In 2019, Rahul Gandhi in a speech said, “How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?” In August last year, the Supreme Court stayed Rahul Gandhi’s conviction and restored his status as the Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad. In this case, it was the Surat Court that convicted Rahul Gandhi and the Supreme Court that stayed his conviction and restored his status as an MP, not the BJP or the Modi government.
While Dreze talked about the Congress party’s bank accounts being frozen, he, for obvious reasons, did not mention why such action was taken by the Income Tax Department. As we reported earlier, the IT department sent multiple notices to the Congress party in March this year raising demands for outstanding payments totaling over Rs 3,500 crores.
The IT Department launched reassessment proceedings for previous assessment years after uncovering irregularities in the Congress party’s tax returns. During its searches, the department uncovered ‘unaccounted’ transactions, indicating that the party’s total taxable income for several previous assessment years was higher than stated, resulting in tax liability for undisclosed income.
Despite the staggering irregularities in Congress’s tax returns, the IT Department earlier this month gave an undertaking before the Supreme Court of India that the department would not take coercive action against the Congress party until the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections were over.
The anti-Modi ecosystem is peddling the same old lies with no evidence to claim that somehow Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a fascist dictator suppressing the opposition’s voice. Desperate I.N.D.I. bloc sympathisers like Yogendra Yadav can go to any extent in their efforts to prevent the near-inevitability of a third term in power for the Narendra Modi-led NDA.
The Congress-friendly ecosystem loves to preach about morality, democratic values and the importance of healthy criticism and dissent but does not believe in practising the same.
Interestingly, Yogendra Yadav, while expressing despondency in the way I.N.D.I. Alliance failed to put up a strong fight against the Modi government had blasted the Congress party for violating “alliance dharma” by criticising the Trinamool Congress (TMC) over its alleged corruption in West Bengal.
In February this year, Yogendra Yadav said that Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury should not raise his voice over law and order and corruption issues in West Bengal since Trinamool Congress was a part of the anti-Modi I.N.D.I. Alliance. In a healthy democracy, political parties are expected to criticise and support each other over specific issues regardless of the alliances and ideological inclinations, however, Yogendra Yadav wanted Congress to overlook TMC’s alleged corruption and scams since defeating Modi is more important than even serious issues like corruption.
“When the I.N.D.I. Alliance was formed, and after that, there had to be a certain ‘Maryada’, a limit beyond which the alliance partners would not attack each other. I felt that Congress in Bengal under Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s leadership violated that ‘Maryada’ several times. For instance, he [Chowdhury] said that President’s rule should be imposed in West Bengal. You’re asking the BJP government in the Centre to come and dismiss an elected government that too of my alliance partner. This is not in line with the Maryada. There were allegations of corruption leveled by Congress which is fine coming from an opposition party, but Congress went a step ahead and said that there should be CBI and ED raids against TMC leaders. Even I had differences with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) but when Manish Sisodia was arrested I said that his arrest was political revenge. So this should have been Congress’s role here…” Yadav said in an interview.
‘Activists’ like Yogendra Yadav, Congress-friendly ‘journalists’, and Youtubers are longing to regain their lost relevance since the people of this country no longer leave the narrative solely in their hands but rather observe and analyse things on their own and decide which party to support and which leader to vote.
If the elections, as claimed by Jean Dreze, are “as good as rigged”, he should advise the anti-BJP parties not to contest elections and boycott them. Will he? Even if he does will Congress and other opposition parties listen to him? The answer is No! They will contest the elections, and if defeated, they will blame EVMs, VVPATs and the intellect of voters, despise North Indians as was seen when Congress lost in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh in the last state assembly elections. But will still accept the mandate on seats they win, then they will not claim ‘rigged elections, EVM hacking etc since when they win it is “victory of democracy” and when BJP or NDA parties win then it is naturally the “death of democracy”. This hypocrisy is not surprising as it was seen how Congress and several other opposition parties continued to shamelessly accept donations made via electoral bonds while opposing the scheme itself.
It is pertinent to mention here that back in 2021, Jean Dreze was included in Tamil Nadu’s Economic Advisory Council. Dreze was also a member of Sonia Gandhi’s National Advisory Council (NAC). This NAC acted much like a de facto PMO during the UPA era. Notably, Sonia Gandhi had established the NAC on 4th June 2004, days after her ‘inner voice’ asked her to step aside and not become India’s Prime Minister. The NAC files made public in 2017 revealed that this Council headed by Sonia Gandhi used to take the final call on policy decisions instead of its role of advising and former PM Manmohan Singh carried out the instructions sent by the NAC.
As OpIndia reported earlier, Jean Dreze had on occasions resorted to peddling lies about the Modi government’s maternity schemes to project the BJP government at the centre in poor light.
Interestingly, alongside Jean Dreze, many usual players including Yogendra Yadav and Harsh Mander were a part of various committees of NAC. Yadav was a member of the NAC on Right To Education (RTE).
Yogendra Yadav and the usual players of the ‘ecosystem’ are quoting and hailing each other for packaging and presenting their same old lies and misleading claims in a new and catchy manner to influence the voter and spread the fear that somehow the democracy is in danger much like it was in 2019 when some anti-Modi ‘activists’ claimed that it would be the last democratic election if Narendra Modi wins elections. This desperation is understandable since Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not function like a remote control PM who is commanded by some NAC which has Yogendra Yadav or Jean Dreze as members.
