EC slow to act on poll violations, says top officer

Fissures in the EC became apparent with commissioner HS Brahma admitting Friday that it has been lax in acting on poll violations, even as the poll panel assured that all decisions were taken in 'unanimity'.

Updated on: May 10, 2014, 15:52:23 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Overseeing a highly-charged election while fighting off allegation of bias, the election commission (EC) seems to be facing problems in its own house too. Fissures in the EC became apparent with commissioner HS Brahma admitting Friday that it has been lax in acting on poll violations, even as the poll panel assured that all decisions were taken in “unanimity”.

Chief-Election-Commissioner-VS-Sampath-with-Election-Commissioners-HS-Brahma-left-and-Nasim-Zaidi-addresses-a-press-conference-in-New-Delhi-PTI-Photo

“The EC shouldn’t go beyond eight to 10 hours to act on poll violation complaints,” Brahma said in an interview to Headlines Today, when asked why no action was taken against Rahul Gandhi even 48 hours after he was shown in a voting compartment in Amethi.

On the denial of permission for a Narendra Modi rally, he upheld Varanasi district magistrate Pranjal Yadav’s decision but said he could’ve been “more professional” and communicated with the BJP in a better way. Brahma’s remarks came a day after chief election commissioner VS Sampath said Yadav had acted on “professional advice”.

Asked for a response to Brahma’s remarks, the EC issued a statement — approved by all commissioners — saying the “top leadership comprising all three commissioners functions as a team and is discharging its constitutional responsibilities with firmness and the required promptitude”.

It denied it was taking longer to deal with poll violations. “The subjects that require minute inputs from the field and further verification take a little more time and are accordingly disposed of,” the EC statement read.

But earlier in the day, before the damage control exercise, the EC issued a rebuttal to Brahma’s claim that exit polls can’t be held till May 16, terming his statement a “slip of the tongue” and clarifying that the exit poll ban would end at 6.30pm on May 12.

The EC was also reported to be divided over the appointment of a new army chief with Brahma wanting the appointment deferred till after polls. But the other two commissioners were not willing to overrule the EC’s standing instruction allowing such appointments and there was no final view on the appointment till Friday evening.

On the complaint against Rahul, Brahma said the EC would take a decision either way by 6pm. But sources in the poll panel said the chief electoral officer has been asked to inquire as there was no clarity on whether Rahul had breached the secrecy of the vote.

Read: EC says Modi's Varanasi rally cancelled due to security, rejects allegations of bias

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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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