Rahul Gandhi’s ‘vote chori’ drama in parliament: Lies, conspiracies, and a script for Western media

Rahul Gandhi has mastered a curious political art: losing spectacularly and still claiming moral victory. Every time voters reject the Gandhi family’s claim to the throne, he emerges not with introspection but with allegations of “vote chori”.

This week in Parliament, he repeated the same tired line: that the government has supposedly changed the law to provide “immunity” to the Election Commission of India (EC), and that key institutional safeguards have been dismantled. In Gandhi’s worldview, if India doesn’t make him Prime Minister, democracy must surely be under attack.

On Tuesday in the Lower House, amid debate over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, Rahul Gandhi emphatically called “vote chori” the “biggest anti-national act.” He accused the EC of colluding with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological affiliate Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) of orchestrating a systematic capture of India’s democratic institutions, from the EC itself to investigative agencies, the judiciary, and bureaucracies.

He warned that this was not just a procedural matter but a crisis for the idea of India. “When you destroy the vote,” Rahul declared, “you destroy the fabric of this country.” He insisted that he had already placed “proof” before Parliament showing how the EC was colluding with those in power to shape elections, and pledged that if justice isn’t done, laws would be changed retrospectively.

Thus began his familiar script: grievance dressed as outrage; defeat recast as martyrdom.

Rahul Gandhi claims CJI was removed from the selection panel for the Election Commissioner

Speaking in the Lower House, Gandhi alleged that the Centre removed the CJI from the selection panel for the Election Commissioner to elect the CEC of their liking. But what Gandhi conveniently ignores to mention that this has been largely the norm to elect CECs during decades of Congress rule. Is he now suggesting that all CECs appointed during previous Congress governments were puppets?

Now, after the reforms, a committee makes the decision while Rahul Gandhi himself is a member of that committee. But somehow, this is more dangerous even though it doesn’t effectively change the way the CEC has been selected for decades? This is not ignorance. This is deceit.

“Government wants to destroy CCTV footage after 45 days”: Gandhi

Another preposterous argument floated by Rahul Gandhi was why the EC stored data only for 45 days.

Well, data retention has limits, everywhere. Each booth has a CCTV system. Do we store terabytes forever to satisfy Rahul Gandhi’s conspiracy theories? Even courts and financial institutions don’t hoard camera footage indefinitely.

Maybe Rahul should check his own phone gallery. Does he store every expired selfie till the end of time? Or is he “destroying evidence”? This is sensationalism dressed as concern.

“EC got immunity to do anything”: Gandhi

Election Commissioners can still be prosecuted, but through proper legal and Parliamentary mechanisms.This protection exists to prevent political retaliation, especially when Gandhi himself threatens ‘we will change the law retroactively’ if he ever returns to power. So who exactly sounds like a danger to institutions here?

The dynasty doctrine: Democracy means Gandhi wins

For Rahul Gandhi, elections are “free and fair” only when the Family wins. The moment mandates go against him, the script flips: EVMs become demonic, the Election Commission becomes compromised, and the Constitution suddenly needs “saving”.

We have seen this hypocrisy on loop. When Congress wins a municipality or scrapes a state government, it is hailed as proof that democracy thrives. When they lose a national election, the same democracy has “died.”

And yet, one wonders where this newfound concern for electoral sanctity was hiding during the decades when Congress ruled by intimidation and manipulation. This is the same party that imposed the Emergency (India), the darkest assault on democratic rights, where the Election Commission was expected to function like a courtier in the royal durbar.

Booth capturing, ballot stuffing, and political vendetta were once the very backbone of Congress’s electoral culture. History, of course, is an inconvenient guest in Rahul Gandhi’s selective activism.

EVM = Evil Voting Machine only when it blocks a Gandhi

His favorite villain remains the EVM, the “Evil Voting Machine”, but only when it blocks a Gandhi’s path to power. These machines were perfectly legitimate when Congress won Karnataka, Telangana, or formed coalitions elsewhere. They become sinister only when BJP registers sweeping victories. It’s almost as if the morality of technology depends on whether it delivers a seat for Wayanad’s latest resident.

Attacking institutions is the new ‘politics of love’

Rahul Gandhi claims he is defending institutions, but every institution he cannot control magically becomes biased or enslaved to the government.

According to him, the Supreme Court lacks independence, the EC dances to the ruling party’s tune, investigative agencies are “misused,” and even universities and V-C appointments are subject to ideological captures.

He suggests that under an RSS-BJP project, every institution, from elections to education, is being brought under a single ideological umbrella. The only institutions he praises are foreign-funded NGOs and narrative factories that echo his talking points. His speeches sound less like national leadership and more like an intern’s homework report for Western handlers.

From repeated failures to repeated fiction

Let’s be brutally honest: this is not a movement for democracy. This is compensation for electoral bankruptcy, wrapped in designer indignation. Rahul Gandhi is the only politician who can lose two Lok Sabha seats, barely retain one later, preside over Congress’s worst performance in history, and still claim the nation has been robbed. Instead of winning trust, he invents excuses. Instead of offering solutions, he manufactures paranoia. The slogan is simple: If we don’t win, it must be rigged.

What truly unsettles Rahul Gandhi is not EVMs, laws, or institutions. It is that India has decisively outgrown the culture of dynasty entitlement. For the first time, governance is being measured by delivery, not surnames. People see results, not royal propaganda. And that reality threatens the very foundation of Congress, the belief that ruling India is the Gandhi family’s birthright.

In the end, Rahul Gandhi’s raging theatrics expose only one thing: his frustration that Indians no longer bow to dynasties. Democracy does not owe him power. The people have spoken, again and again. It is Rahul Gandhi who refuses to listen. His shouts of “vote chori” are not a warning to India, they are a confession that the dynasty has lost its magic, and India has finally moved on.