New EC boss vows to hold fair polls

It was an eventful first day at work for new Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Navin Chawla. First, he defended himself against charges levelled by the BSP and BJP, and then complimented his predecessor N Gopalaswami — with whom he shared an acrimonious relation in the Election Commission (EC) — for increasing the coverage of voter identity card to 82 per cent, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Apr 22, 2009, 02:26:36 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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It was an eventful first day at work for new Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Navin Chawla. First, he defended himself against charges levelled by the BSP and BJP, and then complimented his predecessor N Gopalaswami — with whom he shared an acrimonious relation in the Election Commission (EC) — for increasing the coverage of voter identity card to 82 per cent.

Sixty-three year-old Chawla, accompanied by Election Commissioner SY Quraishi and Power Secretary VS Sampath, who joined the commission on Tuesday, hit back at BSP boss Mayawati, who has accused Chawla of bias against the poll panel BSP.

“She had come on a Sunday and congratulated us for the fine conduct of the state elections,” Chawla said, refusing to be drawn into verbal duel with the UP chief minister.

Chawla, who had been at sixes and sevens with Gopalaswami, said he always learnt from “dissent” and also complimented his predecessor. The two had differed on various issues: election dates for Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls with the latest being disagreement over disqualification of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi for accepting an award from Belgium. However, Chawla praised Gopalaswamy for increasing the coverage of voter’s identity cards to 82 per cent. Now, 57.5 million out of the total 71.4 million voters have the voter’s ID card.

Outgoing CEC Gopalaswami was also graceful in his exit as he wished Chawla “a very bright tenure”.

Chawla sounded optimistic about the future when he said “three of us” will take decisions jointly and will deliver flawless elections as done in the last four years.

When his reaction was sought on the BJP’s statement that they would seek his removal, if they come to power, he said: “It does not worry him.”

Chawla, the first CEC to take charge in the middle of an election, will remain in office till July 29 next year when he turns 65. The CEC, a Constitutional post, enjoys a term of six years or till the occupant turns 65, whichever is earlier.

On his first interaction with media, after taking over, Chawla had a message for urban and young voters: “Come and vote in large numbers to showcase true spirit of democracy.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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