00:00I would like to bring in my colleague Aishwarya Paliwal. She covers the election commission very closely.
00:06Aishwarya, till now what we really have is a response of the EC through a press release.
00:12Is the EC actually looking to address, because the news report throws up multiple questions,
00:18not that 14 times on record dissent was noted by the two other ECs, but a lot more were Form
00:276 is concerned.
00:28What happened, you know, in West Bengal as well, where about 16.1 lakh voters that were added and their
00:34objections and appeals against that.
00:36Lots of questions that the EC needs to answer point by point rebuttal. Is that going to happen?
00:43Well, Priti, unfortunately, I do not think that is something that we should be hopeful for,
00:48because there is a statement which the election commission, in fact, has already come out with.
00:52But in the statement, you know, they are speaking about the fact that whenever any kind of order comes out,
00:58there are deliberations and discussions which take place, which is true.
01:01But on the other side, there are pointed questions which now are being asked and questions that the election commission
01:06has not been able to answer.
01:08First and foremost, the kind of changes that were being made in Form 6, were those changes legal?
01:14And what's the process, the actual legal process being followed? That is something which is still up in the air.
01:19The other question is with regards to the centralization of the data.
01:23Because both the ECs very clearly at different points of time did speak about the fact that this is something
01:28which is not in accordance to the law,
01:30according to them, and is something that should be looked at.
01:32So there are some questions which definitely need to be answered.
01:35The commission, yes, has come out with a statement in which they are saying deliberations actually happened,
01:40which is a fact, yes, before you take any order, deliberations do take place.
01:44And on the final SIR order, you know, when we go back and we check the order,
01:49the signatures of all three of them, the entire commission, which means the CEC,
01:54who's the chief election commissioner and both the election commissioners, their signatures are there.
01:57The decision to do SIR was unanimous, but yes, questions were being raised.
02:02And those questions were being raised within the system and through letters to the cabinet secretary also.
02:08So this is not a small thing. These are big questions which definitely need to be answered.
02:12But at the moment, Priti, coming back to your point, it does not seem like we will see any more
02:16clarification coming in from the election commissioners.
02:18Why also should the election commissioners be writing to the cabinet secretary in the first place?
02:24That's something in itself that needs clarity.
02:27But Aishwarya, even the press release, because if you look at the press release by the election commission,
02:32it more or less confirms the story that was printed in the Indian Express
02:36and more so has the signatures of the deputy director of EC and not really of the three election commissioners,
02:43who which the letter says are on board or were on board where all decisions were taken when they were
02:50taken place.
03:02All right I seem to have lost my colleague Aishwarya, we're going to try and reconnect to Aishwarya.
03:07But
