New Delhi, November 22, 2025
A coalition of 272 prominent former officials, judges, and military leaders has penned a scathing open letter to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, imploring him to halt what they describe as "baseless and venomous" allegations of electoral fraud against the Election Commission of India (ECI). The missive, released on November 19, portrays Gandhi's repeated claims of "vote chori" (vote theft) as a "systematic and conspiratorial" assault on democratic institutions, but critics within the Opposition contend it serves as a convenient smokescreen to obscure deeper, systemic vulnerabilities in India's electoral processes.
The letter, signed by an eclectic group including retired Supreme Court Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, former Delhi High Court Judge S.N. Dhingra, ex-diplomats like Bhaswati Mukherjee and Laxmi Puri, former RAW chief Sanjeev Tripathi, ex-NIA Director Y.C. Modi, and over 130 retired armed forces officers, paints Gandhi's rhetoric as "impotent rage" born of political frustration rather than evidence-based critique. It lambasts his assertions—such as labeling the ECI the "B-team of the BJP" and vowing to "hound" retiring officials—as unsubstantiated provocations that erode public trust in the poll body without formal complaints or affidavits to back them up. "Instead of offering genuine policy alternatives, some political leaders resort to provocative but unsubstantiated accusations," the letter states, urging civil society to rally behind the ECI's efforts to purge "fake voters, non-citizens, and those without legitimate stake" from rolls, drawing parallels to voter verification in the US, UK, Australia, and Japan.
The controversy traces back to Gandhi's high-decibel campaign since the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, where he brandished what he called "100% proof" of manipulation, including manipulated voter lists and EVM tampering in constituencies like Karnataka's Aland. At a September presser, he likened electoral irregularities to an "atom bomb" threatening democracy, prompting the ECI to issue a rebuttal dismissing the charges as "unfounded." The open letter amplifies this defense, warning that such attacks mirror past Opposition broadsides against the judiciary, armed forces, and Parliament—only to dissipate when results favor Congress-ruled states.
Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, while not a signatory, has been indirectly invoked in the fray. A separate open letter addressed *to* Kumar earlier this month called for him to "clear the air" on voter deletions and transparency, highlighting perceived lapses in the ECI's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process. Kumar's office has maintained a measured silence on the latest epistolary exchange, reiterating in a statement Friday that the ECI remains committed to "impartiality and data-driven reforms."
The response from Congress has been swift and stinging. Party spokesperson Pawan Khera dismissed the letter as a "BJP employment exchange" for retired officials, quipping, "Before 2014, people would ask questions of the government, but now they are questioning the opposition, which is not even in power." Senior leader Jairam Ramesh echoed this, accusing the signatories of "convenient deflection" from "genuine systemic issues" like opaque EVM audits, arbitrary deletions of 2 crore voters during SIR, and the ECI's reluctance to release booth-level data. "This isn't defense of democracy; it's a shield for institutional capture," Ramesh posted on X, framing the letter as an attempt to delegitimize legitimate scrutiny amid rising concerns over electoral integrity post-Bihar bypolls, where RJD echoed "stolen mandate" cries.
Legal experts are divided. Constitutional scholar Gautam Bhatia hailed the letter's call for evidence-based discourse but cautioned that dismissing all criticism risks "blinding the ECI to real flaws, like the lack of verifiable paper trails in 100% of votes." Conversely, the signatories' emphasis on international best practices has garnered support from pro-EC voices, who argue that unsubstantiated claims fuel disenfranchisement narratives exploited by foreign actors.
As winter session debates loom, the exchange underscores a deepening chasm: one side viewing fraud allegations as existential threats to be quashed, the other as vital alarms against creeping authoritarianism. With the 2026 state polls on the horizon, whether this letter muzzles dissent or ignites broader reforms remains an open question—one that could redefine trust in India's electoral bedrock.
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