ECI serves notice to Akhilesh, asks to substantiate his ‘allegations’

In a democratic setup, the sanctity and autonomy of institutions, constitutional bodies, and law enforcement agencies are paramount. That is why it becomes the duty of citizens, their representatives, political parties, and directly or indirectly associated officials or persons to uphold the sanctity and trust in these bodies.

Without ensuring it, any thriving democracy may, within no time, end up spiralling into an anarchic and chaotic situation. Unfortunately, certain disgruntled political parties and vested interests have been posing a great challenge to the thriving democracy in India. They have been trying to malign by politicising the routine functioning of these institutions.

Democracy dies every now and then in India

Elections in India are a routine affair through which voters cast their feedback on the governance model of the incumbent governments. But for a long time, a certain pattern has emerged where the opposition parties have been acting as sour losers.

In case of victory, it is hailed as a victory of democracy and people’s mandate. But in case of their defeat, India becomes a fascist nation where the election result is dubbed both as flawed – EVM hacking, ECI favouritism ; and MAJORITARIANISM of unaware/ILLITERATE and COMMUNAL voters.

Evidently, the same cycle repeated after the assembly elections concluded in Uttar Pradesh. The Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav accused that BJP snatched their victory through unfair means. He alleged that the Election Commission of India (ECI) deliberately altered the voter list and chopped of SP’s core voters on BJP’s directions.

Also Read: National Herald: ED has got something big about Sonia and Rahul

He said, “The Election Commission deliberately reduced the votes of Yadavs and Muslims by 20,000 in almost every Vidhan Sabha seat on diktats of BJP and its aides.”

ECI serves notice to Akhilesh Yadav, asks to substantiate his grave ‘allegations’

Now, it seems that with these grave allegations, he has invited trouble for himself. Evidently, the ECI has served him notice to substantiate his allegations against the poll body. It has asked the SP chief to submit PROOF that around 20,000 voters from the Yadav and the Muslim community were “deleted” from the electoral roll from every constituency in the state.

Also Read: Election commission: The most under-appreciated and over-achieving body in India

The ECI has asked him to submit proof of these grave allegations by November 10th. Apart from that, the polling authorities also highlighted the law which prohibits providing electoral rolls on the basis of caste or religion.

The Election Commission noted, “The Representation of People Act 1950 and the Representation of People Act 1951 inter-alia envisage various provisions aimed at ensuring purity of electoral registration/revision/final roll and provisions for penalties and criminal liabilities for undue interference, including false declaration knowingly and promoting enmity between classes.”

This will be a major embarrassment for the SP Chief if he fails to substantiate these allegations. The possibility of it is very high, seeing the past habitual offences of the opposition in raising such unfounded allegations. He will lose his face and there will be a humiliating scene when ECI holds him accountable for these baseless allegations, if found to be untrue.

Manish Sisodia alleged that ED officials are agents of BJP

The AAP government in Delhi has been facing legal troubles for their alleged scams. In all these cases, it has been pleading innocent while levelling grave allegations of misuse of central agencies by the BJP. After one such interrogation by ED officials, Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia alleged that he has been framed in false charges.

He accused that the ED officials pressured him to quit AAP and jump ship to BJP. As per AAP Minister, the ED officials were working as an agent of BJP.

Also Read: As predicted by Kejriwal, Sisodia comes under CBI’s radar

He said, “Today I saw in the CBI office that there’s no issue of any scam (excise policy case). The whole case is fake. I understood all that in the 9 hour-questioning today. The case isn’t to probe any scam against me, but to make Operation Lotus successful in Delhi”.

The Central Financial watchdog had called him out for making such baseless accusations. But it remains to be seen whether the Enforcement Directorate will take the route opted by ECI to ensure that its independent functioning and autonomy doesn’t become a prey to such petty politics and mud slinging. It needs to hold politicians accountable for making these wild allegations without considering the consequences it might have on the democratic setup in the nation.

The opposition and vested interest groups make accusations left, right and centre in the hope that some of these accusations might stick and create a false perception of their victim-hood in the eyes of voters. Additionally, they hope that it may throw the agencies on the back foot and become inactive in probing charges levelled against them, fearing the consequences from these blind accusations or chances of needless appeasement of these parties for what may happen in future. To put it simply, certain power hungry officials may leave scope for manoeuvring in the event of a change of government.

The Modi government should ensure that these institutions and agencies function independently and not try to enter the shoes of Congress, during whose reign CBI and other institutions were ridiculed as Caged parrots. The agencies and judiciary have to analyse this emerging trend and increase the justice delivery mechanism so that it improves their rate of prosecution.