Overview
- Former CEC S.Y. Quraishi told PTI that Nepal’s youth-led unrest signaled a living, vibrant democracy, and he urged governments to be very careful in regulating social media.
- BJP IT chief Amit Malviya called the remarks reckless and said they were unsurprising given Quraishi’s record at the Election Commission.
- Malviya alleged that the ECI under Quraishi signed an MoU with IFES, which he linked to George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, presenting it as a politically problematic association.
- He also accused Quraishi of not ordering a Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls during 2006–2012 despite concerns about shifted, absent and dead entries, and cited a 2007 Uttar Pradesh anecdote to question his disclosures.
- Quraishi launched his book Democracy’s Heartland, where he warns India is veering toward illiberal democracy, while the ECI has previously rejected claims of vote theft and defended its voter-roll revision drives.