From the Urdu Press: Rahul Gandhi's match-fixing charge, PM Modi's challenges at G 7

Indian Express

a day ago

The Urdu press weighed in on claims by Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, also made in an op-ed in The Indian Express, that the Maharashtra Assembly election results were rigged by the ruling BJP, a charge that has been denied by the Election Commission. The dailies also highlighted the challenges for Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he attends the G7 conference in Canada later this month.
URDU TIMES
In its June 9 editorial titled 'Is the Election Commission a threat to democracy?', Urdu Times notes that the EC has not officially denied Gandhi's statement, with poll panel sources saying the commission would first wait for the Congress MP to write to them or seek a meeting so far on poll data. The editorial adds: 'During his visit to Bihar, Rahul Gandhi said the 'match-fixing' of Haryana and Maharashtra will now be repeated in Bihar as well. Though the Election Commission is giving its clarification on the issue, BJP leaders are getting uncomfortable. The Chief Minister of Maharashtra even said that those who people rejected electorally are blaming the government elected by the people.'
The daily writes that the Congress counter is that the party has been seeking party-level voting data since 2023. 'We have moved the court for this. The court had also ordered that the data be provided. After dilly-dallying, the Election Commission has now said that it is ready to provide the data,' Urdu Times writes, adding that as Congress general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Singh Surjewala has called 'the silence and inaction of the Election Commission are an alarm bell for the democratic system'. 'And now the Election Commission's agreement to provide the data is proof that the EC is not an independent institution but is working on someone's instructions,' the editorial says.
ROZNAMA RASHTRIYA SAHARA
Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces a challenge at the G7 conference in Canada where he is headed, notes the Rashtriya Sahara in its editorial dated June 9. It goes on to note that Modi did not get an invite initially, with the Congress party dubbing this a diplomatic blunder. While Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney eventually did invite his Indian counterpart, pointing to India's status as the fifth largest economy in the world, the editorial says, there is no denying the steep deterioration in India-Canadian ties in the recent past.
'Now, questions are being raised about the invite to PM Modi for the meeting. Apart from the Canadian political party NDP, the World Sikh Organization has also raised questions about Carney's decision,' the daily writes.
PM Modi is set to be under scrutiny over Operation Sindoor, which India launched to hit terror targets across the border in retaliation to a Pahalgam terror attack, the editorial says. 'US President Donald Trump has repeatedly announced that he has brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan. India has never confirmed or denied Donald Trump's claim. Opposition parties have also strongly criticised as to why the ceasefire was suddenly declared when the Army was doing well, wondering whether this was due to US intervention.'
The daily adds that their meeting at the G7 would be Modi and US President Donald Trump's first after Operation Sindoor, and wonders what strategy would Modi adopt to address concerns back home and internationally.