Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that the Election Commission EC’s conduct over complaints against senior BJP leaders and non-disclosure of voter data is not becoming of an institution as high as a constitutional one.
The Congress on Thursday criticized the Election Commission (EC) for advising Opposition leaders that they should avoid saying that the Constitution is in danger as well as over its affidavit in the Supreme Court with respect to revealing voter data on its website.
Speaking at a press conference held at party headquarters, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi has come out strongly against EC’s claim that if Form 17C is uploaded on its website, it may be morphed or distorted. He added it was sad and deplorable that the poll panel does not perform its role under the constitution and its leaning seems to be “one-sided”.
Similarly, Mr. Singhvi accused of being a Hindutva party, which had been brought forward by model code violations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah; however, instead, he noted that this was what EC did when giving generalised directions with regards to political parties.
This was after the EC filed an affidavit before SC stating indiscriminate disclosure of polling station-wise voter turnout data and posting them on their website will lead to chaos in an already ongoing Lok Sabha election machinery.
“The EC has become one sided and blindsided by one particular party. All this is being done unfortunately because the EC wants to become the election department of the Government of India,” Mr. Singhvi said.
Accordingly, he added that actions by the EC such as those complained about by BJP top brass do not reflect well on a constitutional high level institution.
“This goes against what this institution ought to do constitutionally speaking. It is not supposed to be election agent for any political party but it should be seen doing what it can do best within this context.” This means when constitutional institutions refuse their constitutional obligations and show bias towards power, then democracy is over.” He said.
Singhvi raised the Election Commission’s guidance that one should not raise questions about the Constitution. “We openly say that unless there is a violation of code of conduct EC has no right to decide who will speak what.”
“Today India’s identity, India’s thought, the basic structure of constitution is endangered. It’s a very sad thing,” he further said.
Congress spokesperson also questioned the purposefulness in hiding Form 17C and increasing public faith in electoral process.
As such, it was an unfortunate and condemnable act on the part of EC to oppose this because it exposes the constitutional body from all angles. We are not asking EC regarding EVMs but for data disclosure. The EC is thus falling into BJP manipulations by making such a ridiculous affidavit that would aid in decimating and destroying electoral democracy as orchestrated by it through its stand here.”
The political parties we oppose and the EC are the two bodies on trial. Political parties can fail this test but not the EC. It has not fulfilled the great constitutional duties and tests that have been set for it. It is now high time that EC rose to occasion and addressed these matters constitutionally. Singhvi said: “Instead of transparency, it voted for concealments.”
