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'No wonder SC thinks…': TMC MP targets Election Commission over leader's arrest
TMC spokesperson Saket Gokhale was granted bail after he was produced before the court in Ahmedabad on Thursday following the completion of his police custody but was soon arrested in another case registered by Morbi police.
Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien targeted the Election Commission over the arrest of the party's national spokesperson Saket Gokhale by Gujarat Police in a fresh case hours after he secured bail in a case related to his tweet about the Morbi bridge collapse tragedy. Gokhale was granted bail after he was produced before the court in Ahmedabad on Thursday following the completion of his police custody but was soon arrested in another case registered by Morbi police.
Saket Gokhale had tweeted a news clipping about information purportedly obtained through the Right to Information (RTI) claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Morbi after the bridge collapse cost ₹30 crore.
"RTI reveals that Modi’s visit to Morbi for a few hours cost ₹30 cr. Of this, ₹5.5 cr was purely for “welcome, event management, & photography”, Gokhale tweeted.
On Tuesday, the Press Information Bureau tweeted a 'fact check' saying the information was fake. An FIR was registered against Gokhale on the charges of forgery and printing defamatory content and he was arrested on December 6.
“BJP CM and an actor turned BJP MP spread communal bile during Gujarat election. What does EC do ? Look away,” O'Brien said in a tweet in an apparent reference to statements made by Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and former Lok Sabha member Paresh Rawal.
“@SaketGokhale of @AITCofficial gets bail in one case filed by Gujarat Police & was on his way to airport. What does EC do? Arrest him,” the Rajya Sabha member further wrote. “No wonder [Supreme Court] thinks EC is stooge”
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What Supreme Court said
The Supreme Court last month lamented that successive governments have “completely destroyed” the independence of the ECI by ensuring no chief election commissioner (CEC) gets the full six-year term to head the poll body since 1996. A Constitution bench remarked that the absence of a law for appointment of election commissioners (ECs) has resulted in an “alarming trend”.
“It’s a very, very disturbing trend. After TN Seshan (who was CEC for six years between 1990 and 1996), the slide began when no person has been given a full term. What the government has been doing is that because it knows the date of birth, it ensures that anyone who is appointed as the CEC does not get his full six years... Be it the UPA (Congress-led United Progressive Alliance) government or this government, this has been a trend,” said the bench led by justice KM Joseph.
It added: “In this way, the so-called independence, which is just a lip service, is completely destroyed... Particularly in view of the disturbing trend that we have found... nobody can question them since there is no check. This is how the silences of the Constitution can be exploited. There is no law, no check. Everyone has used it to their interest... Pick up someone and give him a highly truncated tenure. He is obligated; does your bidding... we are not saying so but it looks like that.”
