Firewalling the poll process from politics
India, Aug. 19 -- An unusually combative press conference addressed by chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Sunday underlined the trust deficit between the poll watchdog and the Opposition that can cast a shadow on the poll process. At the press conference, the first by CEC Kumar since he took over and the first since the controversial special intensive revision (SIR) drive in Bihar, the poll body termed the Opposition's allegations of "vote theft" false and baseless, calling upon Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to provide proof of his claims or withdraw his remarks.
As the custodian of the world's largest democracy, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has a right to defend itself and the sanctity of the poll process. And it is also true that some of the purported issues alleged with the voter roll - such as that of duplicate names or dodgy addresses - are legacy issues that lingered for decades and across multiple governments. But turning this exchange into a political showdown will serve neither ECI nor Indian democracy well. It should instead consider the principles of transparency and inclusiveness, upheld by the Supreme Court, which ordered ECI to publish details of all 6.5 million deletions from the rolls in Bihar and accept Aadhaar as a valid document in SIR despite the poll body's apparent reluctance. Instead of resorting to examples involving mothers and daughters to grandstand on privacy, the poll body should consider issuing objective rebuttals of the allegations made (like it did when charges were made against electronic voting machines earlier) and accept lacunae in the process if any exist. CEC Kumar has already conceded the risks of a hurried clean-up of voter rolls. ECI should now attempt to address lingering concerns over the poll process by exercising maximum transparency within the bounds of the law....
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