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Journalism of Courage
A day after the Election Commission strongly denied Mallikarjun Kharge’s charges over voter turnout data stating that such “utterances” could have “a negative impact on voter participation”, the Congress president on Saturday wrote back saying he understood “the pressures” the poll panel was “working under”.
Kharge also said that it was surprising that the commission “wanted to respond” to his open letter while “ignoring several complaints given directly to it”. “…It is surprising that the Election Commission of India wanted to respond to this letter while ignoring several other complaints given directly to it. I have certain misgivings about the language of the letter, but I will not press on that issue as I understand the pressures they are working under,” he wrote to the commission.
“The letter on one hand says (the) Commission respects citizens’ right to ask questions and on the other hand threatens citizens in the form of advice to exercise caution,” Kharge added.
“I am happy that the Commission understands that it has the mandate to conduct smooth, free and fair elections under the constitution. However, the lack of urgency shown by the Commission in taking action against blatantly communal and casteist statements being made by the leaders of the ruling party that vitiates the electoral process seems puzzling,” his letter further said.
On Friday, four days after the Congress chief wrote to leaders of the INDIA bloc raising concern over the “delay” in releasing voter turnout figures for the first two phases of the Lok Sabha elections, the commission strongly denied his charges and advised him to “exercise caution”.
The Congress then ripped into the poll panel’s response, which it called a “permanent blot” on the institution’s reputation, and reminded the panel that “it is not beyond criticism”.
On the issue of voter turnout data, Kharge’s letter written on Saturday said, “I am also puzzled by the need to write that the ‘Commission is not legally bound to publish any voter turnout data at aggregate level of a constituency or state’, though it is factual. I am sure many voters of our country would be surprised too. Many voters who are deeply interested in the elections would also like to see the absolute number of votes polled to be put out in the public domain by the Commission directly.”
Kharge also said that he was “disappointed that the Commission did not quote another line from the letter which said ‘it should be our collective endeavour to safeguard Democracy and protect the independent functioning of the ECI’ ”.
“To make it more clear, the Congress party is on the side of the Commission and stands for the strength and independence of the Commission. The officials of the Commission should now decide where they stand,” the Congress president wrote.
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