Thiruvananthapuram (Keralam) [India], September 25 (ANI): With Left parties expected to stage a protest to demand the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar tomorrow amid the ECI row, Communist Party of India (CPI) National Council Secretary Binoy Viswam on Friday alleged that the Election Commission is acting as an "instrument of the BJP", stating that the call for a protest is their duty.
"It is the duty of the democratic parties to call for a protest because the Election Commission is behaving as a tool in the hands of the BJP governments... Its primary task is to maintain and make sure that elections are conducted in a free and fair manner. To control it, to supervise it, is their duty, but they are forgetting that duty... That's why the left parties have made a call for a protest," Viswam told reporters.
His remarks came after five Left parties issued a joint statement on Wednesday demanding Kumar's removal and calling for protests from September 26 to October 2, dates chosen to coincide with Bhagat Singh's birth anniversary on September 28 and Mahatma Gandhi's on October 2.
The joint statement, signed by leaders of CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML)-Liberation, AIFB and RSP, cited an Indian Express report on objections raised by two Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, saying it raised "fundamental questions" about the functioning of the EC under Kumar and amounted to "an indictment of the office of the CEC, which stands compromised."
The statement said that two of the three Election Commissioners have, on at least 14 occasions, recorded objections to decisions concerning voter registration, deletion and restoration of names, and the conduct of SIR. They have also raised serious concerns about decisions being taken without their consent.
"The disclosures confirm concerns repeatedly raised by opposition parties and civil society organisations and expose the hollowness of claims that the SIR and electoral-roll management are transparent and decentralised. The two Commissioners have specifically flagged the gradual centralisation of the voter database and restrictions on the access of statutory officials at the state and constituency levels. The consequences are not merely administrative. In Goa, for instance, software restrictions reportedly prevented Electoral Registration Officers from recording their decisions finding 97 voters eligible," it said.
"Any system that makes the right to vote dependent on opaque, centrally controlled processes undermines public confidence in the electoral system. Never before has the credibility and independence of the ECI been so low," it added.
The Left parties demanded that Kumar be removed from office, that the SIR process be halted and voting rights of those "wrongfully" excluded be restored, that the ECI's "independent and democratic" functioning be restored, and that the present system of appointment of Election Commissioners be replaced with a mechanism based on the Supreme Court’s proposed selection committee of the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition and Chief Justice of India.
They appealed to "all non-BJP, secular, democratic opposition parties, civil society organisations and concerned citizens" to join the protest.
The statement adds to a wider opposition campaign against Kumar over the SIR row, with Congress-led protests already held across several states on Friday.
Responding to the Indian Express report, the Election Commission, in a statement on September 23, said that all orders by the body carry full legal sanction and any queries raised by members at the stage of drafting procedures were standard practice.
"The ECI is a constitutional body that functions under the strict mandate of Article 324 of the Constitution, statutory rules and established institutional conventions. The Commission operates as a multi-member constitutional body. Written notes, observations, technical suggestions and internal checks-and-balances are standard, ongoing practices designed to ensure complete transparency, legal compliance and operational rigour. All actions of ECI have been in accordance with laws and instructions of the Commission,” it said.
All official orders, decisions and administrative directions issued by the Commission carry full legal sanctions and follow established statutory procedures, the statement said. (ANI)
"EC behaving as a tool in hands of BJP": CPI leader Binoy Viswam calls Left parties protest a "duty"
