Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said in Parliament that the law that grants immunity to election commissioners against legal action for decisions taken while in power will be changed retrospectively when a Congress government comes into power.

“…They might be under the impression that this law lets them get away with it,” the Congress leader said while speaking on electoral reforms in the Lok Sabha. “Let me assure them…We are going to change the law and we are going to change it retroactively and we are going to come and find you.”

His remarks come amid the Congress repeatedly accusing the Election Commission of large-scale vote rigging, including in the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly polls held in 2024, alleging what they called “industrial-scale rigging involving the capture of national institutions.”

The Election Commission has rejected the allegations.

In the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Gandhi said that vote rigging is “an anti-national act”, reiterating his allegation that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party government and the Election Commission were “colluding to destroy” democracy.

“When you destroy the vote, you destroy the fabric of this country,” the Congress leader said.

He also accused the Election Commission of not responding to any concern raised by the Opposition, alleging that the poll panel had been “captured” by the ruling regime, The Indian Express reported.

During his speech, the Congress leader asked why the chief justice was removed from the selection panel in charge of selecting the chief election commissioner and other election commissioners.

He was referring to a 2023 law that replaced the chief justice with a Union Cabinet minister on the three-member selection panel that recommends appointments to the president. The prime minister and the leader of the Opposition are the other two members.

The Congress leader said that he is part of the selection panel as the leader of the Opposition, but added that he has “no voice in the room”.

“Why are [Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah] so keen on choosing exactly who the EC [election commissioners] will be?” he asked.

Gandhi also said that another law was changed in 2023 to ensure that no election commissioner could be punished for any action taken while in that position, adding that no government had taken such a step in the past.

Clause 16 of the 2023 Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office Act grants immunity to the chief election commissioners and the election commissioners from any legal action for decisions taken while in office.

The Congress leader further asked why rules were changed to allow the Election Commission to destroy closed-circuit camera footage after 45 days of poll results.

In May, the Election Commission had reduced the retention period of video footage and photographs of the polling process to 45 days, citing “recent misuse” of such material.

In his speech, Gandhi said that electoral reforms were “very simple” but the Union government did not want them.

“Give machine-readable voters lists to all political parties one month before the election,” the Congress leader said while elaborating on these reforms. “That is the first step.”

He added that the second step was to take back the law that allowed the destruction of the CCTV footage of the polling process.

“Also tell us [Opposition] what is the architecture of the Electronic Voting Machines,” Gandhi added. “Give us access to the EVMs. Let our experts go and see what is inside the EVMs. Till today we have not had access to the EVMs.”

He added: “Finally, please change the law that allows the election commissioner to get away with whatever he wants to do.”

The Congress leader also said that the Indian nation was a fabric with countless individual threads, adding that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was trying to destroy it by “capturing every institution”, The Indian Express reported.

The RSS is the parent organisation of the BJP.

Gandhi claimed that universities and central agencies, including the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate, have also been captured. “Bureaucrats who support the ideology of the RSS are placed in them,” he added.