The Opposition on Wednesday stepped up its attack on the Election Commission over a report of a growing rift within the EC over Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. As per an Indian Express report, Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised at least 14 formal objections over 10 months to decisions linked to the SIR. The objections reportedly covered voter registration and deletions, electoral-roll software and appeals against decisions taken during the revision.
Reacting to the report, Opposition parties have taken aim at the EC, with Congress Rajya Sabha MP Pramod calling Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar “compromised” and alleging that he was working in favour of the BJP.
Suspend SIR Immediately: P Chidambaram Reacts
Veteran Congress leader P Chidambaram said, “The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that if the decision-making process is flawed or wrong, the decision will also be flawed or wrong…If two ECs have taken a contrary view, how could the CEC make his view the ‘decision’ of the ECI ? All decisions of the ECI in recent years should be reviewed by a Parliamentary Committee Meanwhile, the S.I.R. process should be suspended immediately all over the country.”
DMK leader TKS Elangovan also attacked the SIR exercise, alleging that the BJP-led government was using it to “remove Muslims from the country and turn India into a Hindu nation”.
Congress MP Karti P Chidambaram, meanwhile, took a jibe at the CEC, calling him “CEC SIR Jim Crow” and saying that his continuation had become “untenable”.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav wrote: “This is an extremely serious news…This directly means that all Election Commissioners are not able to perform their rightful duties. If the members of an independent body do not have the freedom to carry out just actions or if there is no hearing of theirs, then these are extremely fatal and dangerous circumstances for democracy. For some people to betray democracy by becoming puppets of those in power is a grave constitutional crime. This is nothing less than a conspiracy to wipe out democracy.”
He called on the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognizance of the matter.
TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose said the report showed that Gyanesh Kumar had turned the Election Commission into a “one man show”. “…Gyanesh Kumar has converted @ECISVEEP into a one man show. The blame for the deeply flawed and chaotic SIR process lies squarely at the door of the CEC. Question: on whose orders is Gyanesh Kumar repeatedly disenfranchising crores of India’s citizens and snatching away the right to vote, without any oversight whatsoever?”
Congress leader Manish Tewari said that if the facts reported by The Indian Express were correct, they suggested the presence of an “invisible hand” controlling the Election Commission. Tewari also raised the possibility of impeachment proceedings and questioned how the credibility of the poll panel could be restored.
“If the ostensible facts as reported by @IndianExpress are correct then it seems to suggest that there is an ‘invisible hand’ running the @ECISVEEP. If rules were not allegedly followed and decisions were taken that were not unanimous or by majority then all the decisions of @ECISVEEP are per -se arbitrary and capricious if not completely illegal. This is perhaps a fit case for serious considering an impeachment proceeding but more importantly the fundamental question is as to how will the credibility of @ECISVEEP be ever resurrected.”
‘Transparency Is Essential’: BJP
Reacting on the ECI-SIR row, BJP leader Ram Kadam said, “Election Commission is a Constitutional body; it cannot become a hub of politics. There should be no fake voters, transparency is essential.”
EC Denies Report
However, sources within the EC have denied the report of a rift, saying that all decisions carried the signatures of all three Election Commissioners.
The sources did admit that Sandhu and Joshi had made observations, and that they were considered, but they pointed out that observations should not be construed as formal dissent.