Fissures within poll panel out in open

The apprehensions that all is not well within the four walls of India's exalted institution — the Election Commission of India — gained credence on Saturday when a purported internal communication of Ashok Lavasa, one among the three Election Commissioners, came out in the public domain.

In a letter to Sunil Arora, the chief election commissioner, on May 4 Lavasa reportedly said he is forced to stay away from the meetings of the full commission since minority decisions are not being recorded and thus his participation in the deliberations of the Commission becomes meaningless since his minority decisions go unrecorded.

Incidentally, on the same day, the Commission had given Prime Minister Narendra Modi a clean chit for a speech delivered in Gujarat on April 21, where he claimed that his government had kept Pakistan on its toes to ensure the safe return of captured pilot Abhinandan Varthaman.

Lavasa is said to have dissented in at least six of the 11 decisions the Commission took on complaints against PM Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah for alleged model code violations. Both were given a clean chit in all the decisions.

Oppn attacks govt

Finding an echo of their angst over clean chits given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah in Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa's dissent letter, Congress launched a scathing attack on the Modi government accusing it of muzzling the institution and seeking a probe into the charges. Alleging that eroding institutional integrity has been the hallmark of Modi government, the Congress also demanded a probe into Lavasa charges.

Terming the development as dangerous for democracy, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury asked if dissenting opinions by judges in the top court can be made public then why cannot those of the election commissioners.

"Whatever is happening in the EC is dangerous for democracy. This has raised a serious question on the neutrality of the EC itself. Even in the apex court, there are minority and majority opinions. There are so many cases in which there has been dissent among judges, but the minority dissent opinion has always been made public," said Yechury.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala asked whether Election Commission will save itself more embarrassment by recording Lavasa's dissent notes.

Meeting On May 21

Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said members of the panel are not supposed to be “clones” of each other and divergence of views was natural. He said the ‘full commission’ would meet on May 21 to discuss the issue of dissent and “related matters”.