EC's letter for 'action' against Khurshid forwarded to PM

The Election Commission has sought President's 'decisive intervention', first in its 51 years of existence, to ensure assembly polls in UP in accordance with law after Khurshid’s statement that he will ensure 9% sub-quota for Muslims even if “EC hangs him”. Chetan Chauhan reports. 'Working for people, let EC hang me' | BJP asks EC to ban Khurshid from UP poll campaign

Updated on: Feb 12, 2012, 02:19:20 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Hurt by Union law minister Salman Khurshid’s defiance of poll code, the Election Commission (EC) has sought President Pratibha Devisingh Patil’s “decisive intervention” to ensure elections in Uttar Pradesh are conducted in accordance with law.

"The President has forwarded the EC’s letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for “appropriate action”," Rashtrapati Bhawan spokesperson said.

The EC took the step, first in its 51 years of existence, after Khurshid’s statement on Friday that he will ensure 9% sub-quota for Muslims even if “EC hangs him”, a day after the poll body censured him for making similar promise in the election bound state.

“The commission is shocked that instead of being remorseful of earlier violation of the mode code, the minister has chosen to be defiant and aggressive,” Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi wrote to President.

“The tone and tenor of the minister is dismissive and utterly contemptuous about the Commission’s lawful direction to him”.

Terming the situation arising out of his conduct as “disturbing” and “unprecedented, the commission said the minister’s action could “vitiate free and fair polls” and was perturbed that the law minister --- mandated to strengthen the EC – was undermining its Constitutional authority.

The commission also said that the delicate balance of functions between the Constitutional authorities has come under strain because of the minister’s “improper” and “unlawful” action. “The EC finds it necessary and unavoidable to turn to you for immediate and decisive intervention,” the letter said.

The law minister took a dig at EC at an election rally in Farukkabad, from where his wife Louise is a Congress candidate, leading to the BJP demanding a ban on him to campaign in UP. “Even after the EC’s decision over the unconstitutional move, the Law minister has been challenging the constitutional body,” BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said, in the complaint to EC.

A few hours later Quraishi sought President’s intervention.

'Working for people, let EC hang me' | BJP asks EC to ban Khurshid from UP poll campaign

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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