Ashok Lavasa speaks online at the event
NEW DELHI: Former election commissioner Ashok Lavasa on Tuesday said the Election Commission of India (ECI) was facing an unprecedented level of controversy and urged the poll body to regain public trust amid protests over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.Drawing a parallel with cricket, Lavasa said the credibility of an election depended on people believing that the poll panel was impartial.“If people feel that the umpire is not neutral, they will question the winning team's victory as well,” he said while addressing a citizens' convention in Kolkata virtually, according to news agency PTI.Lavasa's remarks came as opposition parties intensified their protests against alleged “vote chori”, demanding the resignation of chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over the SIR exercise.Opposition leaders have taken to the streets in recent days and clashed with police in New Delhi.“The EC should regain its credibility and people's trust. The Election Commission of India, whose position is very high and possibly the highest among all public institutions, is today mired in controversies and people are taking to the streets to protest,” Lavasa said.
Questions over dissent within Election Commission
The former election commissioner referred to an Indian Express report that election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected on record at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders they said had been issued without their knowledge.
The objections reportedly came even as the nationwide SIR exercise was being overseen by the full commission.Lavasa questioned the lack of publicly available meeting minutes, saying it was difficult to establish whether decisions had been taken unanimously or by a majority.“This casts a doubt in the minds of the people whether the decisions of the Election Commission, including on the SIR, were unanimous or taken by majority,” he said.He also said the Election Commission had not provided an authentic clarification on the reported differences between its members.“Some press statements have been issued, but those create more questions and generate more doubts than they answer,” Lavasa said.The poll panel has maintained that differing views and observations are a normal part of deliberations in any institution. It has also said that all its orders carry full legal sanction and follow established statutory procedures.The EC added that all three commissioners, as well as its officers, were authorised to offer suggestions to improve the electoral system.
Lavasa flags concerns over SIR
Lavasa said the SIR exercise had triggered widespread anxiety over voting rights, adding that people had not been as concerned about protecting their right to vote in the preceding 16 months.“The EC's decision to conduct the SIR took everyone by surprise,” he said.He noted that the Election Commission had conducted special revisions of electoral rolls in the past under the Representation of the People Act and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, but argued that the current exercise had created an unprecedented level of public concern.Lavasa also questioned the approach of categorising electors into three age groups based on their dates of birth under the Citizenship Act.The Constitution, he said, requires the Election Commission to enrol all those who meet the eligibility criteria under Article 326, which provides for voting rights for Indian citizens aged 18 and above who are not of unsound mind or disqualified under any law.“But unfortunately, with the tactics deployed this time, the goal is not to include.
Possibly the priority is to exclude people from the voter list on the suspicion that they are not Indian citizens and not on evidence,” he said.Referring to West Bengal, Lavasa said nearly 60 lakh people's voting rights had gone under adjudication during the SIR, apart from those excluded from the draft electoral rolls. He said the EC had not adequately considered the proximity of the Assembly elections and the difficulty of adjudicating such a large number of cases in time.Lavasa added that around 33 lakh names had been restored to the voter list after adjudication.
joins criticism of SIR
Actor-activist Prakash Raj, who also addressed the convention, described the SIR as the “most dangerous disease” and alleged that it was undermining democracy.“Even before Gyanesh Kumar came (as the CEC), they broke parties in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Bihar,” he said, accusing the BJP leadership of seeking to divide people through the SIR into those who could vote and those who could not.Raj also alleged that the West Bengal Assembly elections were conducted in an “illegal” manner following the revision exercise, claiming that voter names had been selectively deleted. He said opposition parties had come to believe they were contesting “fixed” elections.
The convention was organised by CPI(M) leader Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya and retired bureaucrat Jawhar Sircar.The protests over the SIR have also prompted a wider political confrontation between the opposition and the ruling BJP.Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has vowed to continue the INDIA bloc's campaign against alleged electoral irregularities, while Union home minister Amit Shah has accused the Congress of trying to shield infiltrators by opposing the exercise.