Indian elections largest exercise of electoral franchise: US

Indian elections is the largest exercise of electoral franchise in the world, the United States said Thursday.“We celebrate the election that happened in India; it was the largest exercise of electoral franchise in any country anytime in history,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters in Washington at his daily news conference.He was responding to a question on the recent election results and representation on Muslims in the Indian parliament. Miller, however, refrained from responding to such a question asserting that this is for the people of India to decide.“For specific results of that election, it’s just not something we comment on,” Miller said.
Meanwhile, the head of a Canadian political party said on Thursday that an intelligence report about some members of parliament acting as agents for other nations was concerning and that offending lawmakers must be removed. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been on the defensive since a committee of lawmakers that focuses on security matters said in a heavily redacted report this month that some elected officials had been "witting or semi-witting" participants in foreign interference operations."If there continues to be no consequences for MPs who knowingly help foreign governments act against Canadian interests, we will continue to be an easy target," Singh said. "Removing MPs who knowingly participate in foreign interference would have the deterring effect on this type of behavior," he added.
In the report, which was based on information from intelligence agencies, the committee of parliamentarians did not reveal any names but said India and China were the main foreign threats to Canada 's democratic institutions. Singh did not name any lawmakers either, or say how many were named in the report or if any them were sitting MPs, but he added that the report gave him "no reason" to remove any members of his own party.