Meeting held under pressure: Jairam Ramesh attacks ECI over INDIA bloc meet

Business Standard

a day ago

A day after Election Commission of India (ECI) met with the delegation of 11 parties to discuss its decision of conducting "electoral" revision ahead of the Bihar elections, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh slammed ECI stating that the meeting "ultimately" took place "under pressure".
The Congress leader noted that the Election Commission earlier refused a meeting, however, later only allowed two leaders from a party, due to which some leaders could not even meet with the officials of the ECI.
"Yesterday evening, the delegation of the INDIA bloc met with the Election Commission regarding the special voter intensive revision ("SIR") in Bihar. Initially, the Commission had refused to meet, but ultimately, under pressure, the delegation was called. The Commission arbitrarily allowed only two representatives from each party, due to which many of us could not meet with the Commission. I myself sat in the waiting room for almost two hours", Jairam Ramesh said in his 'X' post.
The Congress MP stated that the ECI's attitude "weakens" the "basic structure" of the Indian democracy. He asserted that ECI is a government body and it can't refuse the opposition's request for hearings.
"Over the past six months, the Commission's attitude has consistently been such that it weakens the basic structure of our democracy. The Election Commission is a constitutional body. It cannot regularly reject requests for hearings from the opposition. The Commission must work in accordance with the spirit of the Constitution and its provisions", Jairam Ramesh's 'X' post said.
The Congress leader emphasised that the ECI cannot impose "arbitrary rules" for engaging with political parties.
"Most importantly, the Election Commission cannot make arbitrary rules for engaging with political parties--such as the number of representatives, their positions, or deciding who is authorized and who is not", the Congress leader said.
Claiming that when the opposition called the rules from the ECI "arbitrary and misleading", the body replied, "This is the new Commission." Ramesh said that this answer from the ECI, the concern of the opposition has deepened as they feel that what will be the next step of the electoral body.
"When the delegation called these rules arbitrary and misleading, the Commission responded: "This is the new Commission." Hearing this, the concern deepens--what will be the next move of this "new" Commission? And how many more "masterstrokes" are yet to be seen? Just as the "demonetization" of November 2016 dealt a severe blow to our economy, similarly, this "voter suppression", which is emerging in the form of SIR in Bihar and other states--will destroy our democracy", Jairam Ramesh said in his 'X' post.