Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accused the Centre of rewriting the country’s electoral framework to give election commissioners the “gift of immunity.”

Addressing the Lok Sabha during a debate on electoral reforms, the leader of Opposition said that “no prime minister in the history of India had done what the Modi government did in December 2023 when it changed the law to grant complete immunity to members of the Election Commission.”

The Congress MP said the December 2023 amendment, which ensures that no election commissioner can be punished for any action taken while in office, marked an unprecedented shift in India’s democratic structure.

Why did the prime minister and the home minister give this gift of immunity," the Amethi MP asked.

Rahul asked why the Chief Justice of India was removed from the selection panel for appointing the chief election commissioner and the other election commissioners.

He said he himself was on the panel as the leader of Opposition but had no voice as he was outnumbered by the Prime Minister and the home minister.

Why is Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah so keen on who exactly the election commissioner is going to be, Rahul said.

He also took aim at the BJP for making laws "that allow the EC (to) get away with everything…" and warned the Election Commission, "Don't worry, we will change it back and will find you."

The Congress MP also alleged widespread manipulation of voter lists and questioned key changes made to laws governing the functioning and accountability of the central poll body.

He accused the BJP of committing the “biggest anti-national act” by engaging in “vote chori” in recent elections in collusion with the Election Commission of India.

"There is no bigger anti-national act than 'vote chori'," Rahul said, hitting back at the BJP and other critics of who use the phrase 'anti-national' against the Congress and him.

"A Brazilian woman appeared 22 times in Haryana voter lists… another woman's name appeared 200 times. The Haryana election was stolen. I have said this again and again and again… but nowhere has the Election Commission answered my questions."

"The EC hasn't told me why lakhs of duplicate voters exist. The EC has no answers to these questions. Why, after the SIR in Bihar, were there 1.2 lakh duplicate voters? It is very clear you have captured the institution. I have shown how the EC is doing things completely out of line."

So far Rahul has made three PowerPoint presentations on the alleged vote theft.

Two were presented in August, where he said that the data pointed to voter fraud in the Karnataka Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Assembly elections. The third, presented in September, alleged a centralised and mass deletion of voter names.

The central poll panel and the BJP rejected the claims every time and demanded categorical proof, which Rahul maintained he had already supplied in his presentations.

He also asked why the law was changed to allow destruction of CCTV footage 45 days after polling and rejected the explanation that it was a data issue, saying the real issue was stealing elections.

"Give machine readable voter list to all parties one month before elections, take back the law that allows destruction of CCTV footage after 45 days, tell us what is architecture of EVMs, give us access to the EVMs, and finally change the law that allow the election commissioners to get away with what ever he wants to do," Rahul suggested.

"They (the election commissioners) are under the impression that this law will allow them to get away but that is not the case as we will change the law and do it retroactively," the former Congress president said.

The Election Commission has previously clarified that in June this year it revised rules for access to video footage from polling to ensure such footage would be accessible only to courts adjudicating election petitions.

The commission said open access could breach voter privacy and create security risks and that footage from CCTVs, webcasting or videography could make voters vulnerable to pressure, discrimination and intimidation.

He also asserted that India is not just the biggest democracy but the greatest democracy.

"The biggest anti-national act you can do is vote 'chori'. Because when you destroy the vote, you destroy the fabric of this country, you destroy modern India, you destroy the idea of India. Those across the aisle are doing an anti-national act," Rahul said, gesturing towards the treasury benches.

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey hit back sharply at Rahul Gandhi’s allegations, arguing that it was the Congress that had a record of eroding democratic institutions.

He said the party had done so most notably during the Emergency in 1975 and asserted that India today was the greatest democracy.

In his address, Dubey cited examples from 1976 and said, “In 1976, they put an end to all institutions… With one amendment, they ended all rights of the President, making him a rubber stamp." He added that Congress governments had themselves engaged in electoral malpractice. “Indira Gandhi did vote chori and won Rae Bareily. She bypassed three judges and picked another CJI… They are talking about institutions today… They even ended UPSC. Congress leader Batuk Singh remained the UPSC head for 10 years," Dubey said.

The Congress MP recalled that on January 30, 1948, three bullets pierced the chest of Mahatma Gandhi and Nathuram Godse assassinated the "father of our nation".

"Today, our friends (in the BJP) don't embrace him and push him away, as he is an uncomfortable truth. But that's not where the project ended. Everything, all the institutions, have emerged from the vote, so it's obvious that the RSS has to capture all the institutions that have emerged from the vote," he said.

After Gandhiji's assassination, the next step of the project was the "wholesale capture" of India's institutional framework, he alleged.