By Seema Khan
The landslide victory for the Narendra Modi led BJP government has taken everyone by surprise with many raising eyebrows at the role of election commission, suspected to be hand in gloves with the winning party.
Election commissioner Ashok Lavasa’s open protest against two of his fellow commissioners brought the inner conflict in the public domain hinting at the infighting within the poll panel. ‘Why has the chief election commissioner been silent on the complaints?’, argues Lavasa ‘even if the decision is taken, why no action has been taken’, he added.
The situation led to the apex court’s intervention reminding the EC of its power and the need of the hour to exercise it.
The disgruntled 22 opposition parties approached the Election Commission after rising mistrust in the EVM machines, requesting ballot paper polling and counting 50% VVPATs, which was later denied by the EC claiming the machines are ‘tamper-proof’.
A day after lauding the election Commission, former president Pranab Mukherjee asked the EC to maintain its credibility by settling the questions being raised on it.
There is no answer from the EC on the disappearance of 20 Lakh EVM machines after an RTI revealed dispatching of the machines from the factory but never reaching EC office.
The party workers become chowkidar and are keeping a vigil on the strong rooms ever since reports and videos of machines came out.
EC remained mum on the black box that was taken from Prime Minister’s chopper and then taken away in a private car brazenly violating the poll code. No explanation has been given on the content of the box despite speculation that it was full of money.
Suspension of officers who inspected Modi’s chopper is questionable as he was only performing his duty.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora has become incapable of taking any decision.
Stories and videos about EVMs changes, fake voting and EVM swapping are going round on the social media. Several clips of strong room violations have also gone viral. EC’s response was ‘all is well’ when these issues were reported. Responding to the mass scale violations, former Election Commissioner Y S Qureshi said that, as per the rules, EVMs can only be moved under police protection, and under supervision of observers. But stacks of videos show that it has been moved around without police protection, often in random trucks, some without a number plate.
There are cases when EVMs reached the strong room 2 days after polling. No one knows where it was for 2 days. No action has been taken by the EC, and no explanation given by the autorities.
Although some action has been taken by EC for violating Model Code of Conduct (MCC), mostly against opposition leaders, it appeared a window dressing exercise, rather than implementing the code. No actions were taken against PM Modi when he asked voters to dedicate their votes in the name of martyrs of Pulwama.
Amit Shah threatened Muslims and Christians but, again, there was no action against. Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Aditiyanath called the Indian Army as Modi’s army again. Again, there was no response from the EC despite protest and complaints by the opportion leaders.
When breaches to MCC became too many, Lavasa, one of the election commissioner, asked for transparency. But he was over ruled by the other two ECs. He asked for his objections be filed but was rejected by 2-1 vote. Lavasa then demanded to record dissent note on orders.
CEC Sunil Arora denied reports of any rift within the EC after Ashok Lavasa’s letter made it clear that there is a rift between the three of them.
When videos showing BJP workers brazenly holding fingers of voters and forcing them to vote for their party had gone viral, EC responded with minor punishment for culprits in Faridabad. There may have been many more violations like this which went unrecorded.
NaMo TV suddenly appeared on TV screens during the poll season. EC allowed it despite wide spread opposition, in the name of Ads. What was more surprising is the fact that it disappeared right after the polling was over.
EC role was questioned when senior BJP leader Smriti Irani, and a candidate from Amethi constituency, kept filing affidavits with different qualification. On the other hand Tej Bahadur’s nomination was rejected without giving a valid reason.
EC appear to be allergic to VVPAT machines. It refused to count VVPAT paper slips, citing lack of man power. It also lied in its affidavit that there’s no mismatch in VVPAT and EVMs but the caravan magazine proved that there is a mismatch.
Stretching the polls that appears too long, and a long gap in the last schedule itself creates suspicions.
And the, Modi was granted permission to visit Kedarnath temple for a well organisd and directed camera shoot, for what was publicised as ‘sadhna’ trip.
22 opposition parties have approached EC to complain all, and possibly more, serious issues and breaches that occurred with these LS elections. But silence of EC has proved deafening, and refusal to act makes them a collaborative organisation leaning towards BJP, or, it has become a limp organisation.
It is sad to see that another democratic institution has been destroyed. No wonder opposition parties are calling the EC an ‘Eradicated Credibility’.
