The electoral process, the foundation of the “biggest democracy in the world” is being threatened and endangered today. A group of 66 former civil servants have written to the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind expressing their dissatisfaction at the Election Commission of India, saying that the institution’s independence, fairness, and impartiality are percieved to be compromised in the elections and these are in further to question the integrity and credibility of the electoral process.
The list of these 66 former civil servants who claim that they are not affiliated to any political party and have been serving the country in its conduct of elections for the past six decades, include, Former Chief Secretary of Government of Rajasthan Salahuddin Ahmed; Former Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Shipping and transport in the government of India S.P Ambros; Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat in Government of India, Vappala Balachandran; N. Bala Baskar, Former Principal Finance Adviser in the Ministry of external affairs India; Former special Secretary Gopalan Balagopal, Government of West Bengal among the other prominent civil servants.
The letter to the president states that since long, Election Commission has been fair enough in holding the elections in the country despite the challenges it has faced at the hands of political parties on large scales and complexities. However, the credibility of the institution is compromised today, endangering the foundation of democracy. The civil servants mentioned their fear of losing democracy if the Election Commission does not abide by the rules under the constitution of holding free and fair elections.
The letter coveys the reluctance of Election commission on taking any actions against the ruling party (BJP) on violating the Model Code of Conduct. The civil servants have enumerated their problems in their letter out of which some of the instances are:
The civil servants pointed out the Supreme Court’s decision of not interfering in the release of Modi’s biopic. The film is scheduled to release on April 11, on the day when the polls for the 2019 elections will begin. This is an effort to gain free publicity of a political person and his party and violated the Model Code of Conduct. However, no serious actions have been taken against the release.
The ECI has been irresponsible on the ban of NaMo TV channel launched on March 31, 2019, that is propagating the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his efforts in his fuve years of governance without any formal approval from the Ministry of information and Broadcasting. The civil servants have mentioned that this is a violation of the democratic norms as the channel is given to the subscribers free of cost.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of the success of the ASAT which made India the fourth space power in the world was a neglected violation of the Model Code of Conduct. The same announcement could have been made by the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) but the ECI paid no attention to the issue.
The civil servants alleged that ECI also Neglected the 10-part web series Modi: A Common Man’s journey. The five episodes of the series are already streaming on Eros Now with ECI doing nothing to prevent the violation of Conduct.
The ECI has passed orders to transfer the three top police officials from Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. However, no such actions were taken in Tamil Nadu, Where the present Director General of Police is under the CBI investigation in charge of the Gutkha Scam case.
Yogi Adityanath Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh has made irrelevant remarks calling the Indian army as Modi Ki Sena that was against the orders of the EC to keep away the Indian Army from any political propaganda. A similar remark was made by a senior BJP functionary, Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. Such statements by the high constitutional functionaries are an attempt to mislead the general public and constitute to the damaging of the tradition of the armed forces as apolitical formations.
The letter states that the negligence of the ECI in all these matters reflects its opaqueness that will eventually lead to an erosion of trust and people’s confidence in the fairness of the elections that will fathom the Democracy’s failure in future. The Letter urger the President to follow the mandate given to the elections under Article 324 of the constitution to ensure the conduct of free and fair elections.