EC not a divided house, says VS Sampath

Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath sought more powers for the EC to curb the menace of money and liquor in polls. He asserted the poll panel was not a divided body and said he did not complain to the President against election commissioner HS Brahma.

Updated on: May 15, 2014, 23:04:19 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath on Friday sought more powers for the Election Commission to curb the menace of money and liquor in polls.

He asserted the poll panel was not a divided body and said he did not complain to the President against election commissioner HS Brahma.

"I have known Mr Brahma for three decades. We have worked in the same cadre and we have a cordial relation. I want to assure all decisions in the EC were taken with unanimity," Sampath told HT in an interview.

The former IAS officer agreed with Brahma that the political discourse in elections was not of the standard expected from top leaders, adding that the EC had acted with requisite "firmness".

The CEC said there was no delay in taking action against hate-speech makers such as Azam Khan and Amit Shah, as it was based on evidence and after proper verification. "We did not act in haste as we had to be fair," he said. Action on violation of the model code of conduct, he added, is initiated only if the leaders are prima facie found to be guilty.

But he accepted that the model code needed to be reviewed and that the EC will look into the matter after the election process ends. "Action under the model code is not a substitute for legal action under The Representation of the People's Act. Any change in the law is a legislative exercise. We have been asking the government for electoral reforms and hope the next government will pursue it," he said.

He sought powers specifically to curb the use liquor and money as lure in polls.

On the perceived blot on the EC's image that it did not act effectively against rigging in this election, Sampath said: "Every complaint of malpractice is looked and the returning officer scrutinises with agents of the candidates. We take all relevant into consideration and decide."

The CEC felt that the poll period should ideally have been reduced, but Mandate 2014 had to be held in phased manner for 'optimal' use of limited resources.

"Deployment of paramilitary forces and micro-observers are important for holding fair and violence-free polls. This time, the entire poll process will be completed in 72 days as compared to 75 days in 2009," he said.

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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