The Election Commission of India came under the attack of the Congress on Thursday with party claiming that the ECI had become a ‘’one-sided and follower of power’’ and was not even mentioning the names of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for violating Model Code of Conduct (MCC) in any of its document.
Addressing a press conference at the All India Congress Committee headquarters here, national spokesperson and senior party leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that the ECI should remember that it is not the election agent of any party.
“Despite our complaint, the Prime Minister and Home Minister were not named in any document of the Election Commission. The commission did not even warn anyone, nor did it impose any ban, nor was any blame put on anyone,” Singhvi said.
The press meet was in the context of missives sent by the ECI to both the Congress and BJP nearly a month after it issued notices to BJP and Congress presidents over their star campaigners’ speeches.
The missives were sent to the party president of both the parties and had not named any leader against whom the complaint was filed. It stated that defence filed by BJP and Congress for remarks made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi was “not tenable” and asked both the parties to ensure that their star campaigners maintain decorum and refrain from making remarks that are communal, divisive or create “false impressions” on possible impact on the Constitution of India. Both parties had defended their leaders’ statements in their replies to the EC notice.
Singhvi, who is regarded as the legal voice of the entire I.N.D.I.A bloc, said that the Election Commission wrote to the presidents of both the national parties, Congress and BJP, to tell their star campaigners not to violate the Model Code of Conduct indicating that it the poll body was reluctant to act against the PM for his violations.
“All these things do not befit a high-level constitutional institution. This is against the constitutional responsibilities of the institution. This is the Election Commission and not the election agent of any party. We are surprised that when a constitutional institution does not follow the Constitution and shows inclination towards power, then it should be understood that this is the end of democracy,” he said.
The ECI also came for sharp criticism from the senior lawyer for its response on the subject of disclosure of Form 17C data before the Supreme Court.
“ 17C was a form that records how many votes were cast in a polling station; which machine with which serial number is installed in which polling station and how many votes were cast on each machine; all these details have to be put up on the Election Commission’s website. The Election Commission says that the data can be tampered, someone can morph the photo and in such a situation data cannot be uploaded and this response is strange. Its response was ‘strange and a kind of fallacy’,” noted Singhvi.
