Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini Responds to Rahul Gandhi's Debate Challenge, Invites Him to Face Questions

CHANDIGARH: Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Friday took a swipe at senior Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, over his debate challenge, inviting him to Haryana to face questions from the BJP Yuva Morcha president. Offering to arrange the venue himself, Saini said Gandhi could not expect to make what he described as false allegations without facing questions in return. “It cannot be a one-sided affair where someone makes false claims and then walks away,” he remarked. Saini said that if the Congress had any grievances regarding the electoral process, it should present its case before the Chief Election Commissioner. He said the Election Commission was an independent institution and that the courts were also open to the party. Questioning why the Congress was unwilling to approach these forums, he said merely making allegations from home for public consumption would serve no purpose. Saini was speaking to the media after transferring funds under various government welfare schemes. He responded to questions on government initiatives, crop procurement, allegations levelled by the Congress and several other issues. Launching a sharp attack on the Congress, Saini said the party had no substantive issue to take to the people and was therefore attempting to mislead the country in the name of “vote theft” while casting doubts on the credibility of democracy and the Election Commission. He said that if the Congress had complaints about voters' names being deleted or incorrectly recorded, the Election Commission had already prescribed a procedure for raising objections. Electoral rolls had been made available in the public domain, and a month's time had been provided to file objections through the prescribed forms.