Misuse of religion: EC hands tied over powers to disqualify

The Liberhan Ayodhya Commission of Inquiry has recommended that the Election Commission (EC) be given powers to disqualify candidates,or even parties....

The Liberhan Ayodhya Commission of Inquiry has recommended that the Election Commission (EC) be given powers to disqualify candidates,or even parties,found to be misusing religious sentiments,or appealing to voters through the mode of their piety. One of the recommendations made by the Commission,which shall now be referred to the Election Commission,reads: The Election Commission of India must also ensure that any complaints brought before it by any citizen of the country,of attempts to misuse religious sentiments,or to appeal to voters through the mode of their piety,whether by holding thinly disguised electoral rallies in places of worship,or posing as political supplications to God,must result in swift action and possible disqualifications.

Legal adviser to the Election Commission S K Mendiratta said that after BJP leader L K Advani took out a rath yatra in 1992,The Indian National Congress had then petitioned the Election Commission saying that the BJP should be disqualified for misusing religion for political purposes. The Commission,however,concluded that it had no powers to disqualify political parties,something that was later upheld by the Supreme Court,added Mendiratta. T N Seshan was then the Chief Election Commissioner.

However,in 1995,Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray lost the right to exercise his franchise for six years when the Supreme Court found him guilty of making inflammatory speeches on Hindutva during a 1987 bypoll in Mumbai. The Election Commission in such matters is normally asked for its opinion on the quantum of punishment,but it has no real powers to disqualify candidates or parties (except for the candidates failure to file expenditure returns).

When Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily last week wondered why the EC had failed to disqualify even one candidate (for electoral malpractices),former Chief Election Commissioner T S Krishnamuthy and Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi countered,saying the EC had no real powers to disqualify a candidate,and that the government had so far failed to act on a 22-point electoral reforms charter given to it way back in 2004.

The Liberhan Commission has now recommended that the EC be vested with powers to disqualify parties or candidates found guilty of misusing religion for electoral purposes.

Former adviser to Election Commission,K J Rao welcomed the proposal. When the EC has the powers to register parties,it should also have the powers to derecognise them. And why only religion,the EC should be vested with powers to derecognise them for various kinds of electoral malpractices,including the violation of Model Code of Conduct, he said.