- 9 minutes ago
A major political and institutional controversy has erupted over allegations of an internal rift within the Election Commission of India concerning the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process. The INDIA bloc and Congress workers launched nationwide street protests across multiple cities, demanding the immediate resignation and arrest of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The opposition has also approached the Supreme Court seeking criminal prosecution and the quashing of decisions related to the electoral roll revision, while the BJP defended the CEC. Former Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat dismissed allegations of illegality, describing procedural issues as minor and stating that dissent among commissioners is natural. In contrast, former CEC S. Y. Qureshi termed the unilateral decision-making unprecedented and illegal, claiming genuine voters were deleted and calling for an audit and rollback of recent electoral rolls.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Good evening, you're watching NewsTrack with me, Maria Shakila's EC vs. EC Rift report.
00:06And the entire chaos has started.
00:11The India bloc is now going all out to seek the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Yanesh Kumar
00:17after a media report alleged a rift among Election Commission members over the SIR process.
00:23Hours after Rahul Gandhi attacked the CEC, calling him anti-national,
00:27the Congress today took the fight to the streets from Delhi, Guwahati, to Lucknow, Patna, Bhopal, Bengaluru, Chandigarh and Dehradun.
00:37Congress workers took to the streets across the country demanding accountability and the removal of Yanesh Kumar.
00:43The RJD announced separate protests across Bihar.
00:48The Kokoro Janta Party has already issued an ultimatum demanding the CEC's removal.
00:53It has said that if Yanesh Kumar doesn't resign, it will launch a nationwide protest beginning in Mumbai on October
01:012nd.
01:02From the impeachment push to the Supreme Court petition and now from Parliament to the streets,
01:07the battle over Yanesh Kumar is escalating.
01:09The Election Commission and the CEC in particular now faces serious questions over the allegations surrounding the SIR process
01:16because in a democracy like ours, elections can't turn into a circus.
01:23Before I bring in former CEC's on the show, here's a look at what unfolded today.
01:41The India bloc has upped the ante against Chief Election Commissioner Yanesh Kumar
01:45following explosive claims made in a series of media reports.
01:48A strategy has been drawn up for sunset.
01:51But before taking the battle to Parliament, the opposition has taken it to the Sadak.
01:55Congress workers across the country hit the streets against Yanesh Kumar, demanding his removal and arrest.
02:03The protests spread across the country with Congress workers taking to the streets in Delhi, Bengaluru, Jammu, Lucknow and Chandigarh.
02:11Protests were also held in Gauhati, Bhopal and Shimla as the Congress took its fight against Yanesh Kumar to the
02:16streets.
02:17They marched towards Election Commission offices, raised slogans, burnt effigies and confronted the police.
02:24On the streets in the national capital seeking action against Chief Election Commissioner Yanesh Kumar
02:30and all these youth Congress Karakartas at mass from the IYC headquarters and were heading towards the Jantar Mantar Road,
02:40but they have been stopped by Delhi police.
02:42Well, here in Kolkata, right outside the Calcutta University, Congress workers have gathered.
02:46You can see in large numbers because a protest call has been given across the country demanding the arrest of
02:53Gyanesh Kumar.
02:54You can see with posters and placards in their hand, they are saying, we demand the immediate arrest of CEC's
02:59Shri Gyanesh Kumar.
03:00As the Election Commissioners come under Scanner today, the Punjab Congress is holding a vociferous protest
03:05against the Election Commission, especially the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar.
03:09And here you can see the affigee of Gyanesh Kumar is also being burnt by the Congress workers.
03:15They want to march towards the Election Commission office in Chandigarh.
03:18Yes, Madhantar! Gyanesh Kumar!
03:21The protest came after the Congress called for nationwide demonstrations, demanding action against Gyanesh Kumar.
03:28Now it is very clear, 13 crore voters have been deleted.
03:32This is a lame excuse and the BJP should stop making lame excuses.
03:36If they are meddling with our elections and if their leadership is making the Election Commission do this,
03:44then it is an act of treason and they should be aware of it.
03:48India Bloc allies, TMC and RJD also protested, but separately.
03:52Several other partners like the JMM, TVK, National Conference have chosen to stay await altogether.
03:58But simultaneously, the opposition is preparing for a legal fight as well.
04:03A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court against the CEC.
04:08The petition challenges decisions linked to the special intensive revision of electoral rolls and seeks the declaration as illegal.
04:16It also seeks criminal prosecution of Gyanesh Kumar and other officials,
04:19an independent probe into the electoral roll exercise and the restoration of the original statutory form 6.
04:25But the BJP has launched a sharp counter-offensive,
04:29insisting that Gyanesh Kumar deserves the Padma Bhushan for removing Bangladesh infiltrators from the electoral process.
04:58The streets, the Sunset and the Supreme Court.
05:01The political showdown over Gyanesh Kumar is far from over.
05:04With Amit Bhardwaj, Asim Bassi and Indrajit Kundu, Bureau Report, India Today.
05:34What is the election commission stands for?
05:38Actually, any such episode, if it is allowed to simmer and linger, then it definitely affects the reputation of election
05:47commission,
05:47which has been built in the last 75-76 years.
05:52Otherwise, if the election commission, all three of them together, they come out and open and address the media and
06:00give to the public all the details and show the solidarity and unity, nothing will happen.
06:08You know, the idea is that there has been difference of opinion, that on 14 occasions, in 10 months, two
06:16election commissioners of three differed.
06:19You have said on my shows over the last few days that difference of opinion is natural.
06:24But the difference of opinion here in this case is happening at a time when the SIR exercise is underway
06:32and the SIR exercise has already been under this entire cloud of suspicion.
06:39Questions have been raised and this is also to do with voter deletion.
06:44Cases filed in the Supreme Court as well.
06:46Do you see this as a case in which sanctity of elections, which have been held under the Chief Election
06:54Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, is being questioned?
06:57Because that's what the opposition politicians are saying, that those elections are now under scrutiny.
07:05Actually, there is no provision in the law or constitution that any election which has been held and completed can
07:12be put under question, number one.
07:16Number two, there is a way of challenging an election and that is the only election petition and it has
07:23not happened.
07:24So, I don't think that any such issue is evolving.
07:30So, if you're saying that a sanctity of an election has to be questioned only through an election process, but
07:36if the vote, because vote is the right, you know, the right to vote has been denied in a number
07:40of cases and the functioning of the ECNet or the IT centralization is being questioned here.
07:46There were deletions which were happening and it was completely centralized.
07:50All these questions, which the Election Commission faces, the Chief Election Commissioner himself faces, what are the questions, according to
07:58you, which should be answered at this point?
08:01Because he has stopped, you know, because there has been only a press release which has come in so far.
08:08There has been no press conference and the list of questions are only increasing.
08:14I feel most of the issues are a little frivolous or made up and like this centralization.
08:23I think that since the Election Commission has taken a stand that deletions will not be reverted.
08:34You have to apply afresh and join as a new voter.
08:37Now, if Goa state, they put deletions in the final list and then trying to revert or roll back, they
08:46are not succeeding because that provision is not there.
08:48They should have just taken Form 6 and added all those 97 people in the voter list and the problem
08:55is solved.
08:56But even then, when they are sending email and email and email eight times, that is the duty of Election
09:02Commission also to clarify, but that also didn't happen.
09:05So, these are very, you know, small things which snowballed into something big.
09:12Why are you saying that these are small things, sir?
09:15I mean, the fact that the local officers have been sending emails and raising concerns and those concerns are not
09:21being addressed and that this entire centralized system is working out of Nirwach and Southern.
09:26Don't you think that it raises the larger question here?
09:28That the problem is about one man who is running the Election Commission, which is the chief election commissioner here?
09:36No, because supervision in the Election Commission is responsibility at the deputy election commissioner level, director level, DZ level and
09:48everything like email coming and not being responded to cannot be attributed to the commission.
09:53Because it is being seen, Mr. Rawat, as the symptomatic of the larger problem of centralization of power, which is
09:59Gyanesh Kumar here.
10:01And that he did not even listen to the fellow election commissioners when they were raising objections over the last
10:06one year.
10:09That is some misunderstanding because fellow commissioners, if they were in majority, they need not object.
10:15They must decide, record the decision and move ahead.
10:19Would you please elaborate on this?
10:22You were the CEC.
10:23You would have also had two election commissioners under you who would have raised concerns or objected to certain internal
10:29discussions.
10:30Help us understand how does it actually work?
10:34Most of the time I could convince them and they came around and decisions were taken with unanimity.
10:40No unanimity.
10:42Once only this happened, that they did not come around and I had to tell them that if you don't
10:47decide today, I'll go public.
10:50And then they agreed and dropped their objections and things worked.
10:56Are you seeing this snowball into a massive controversy with the protests happening, opposition leaders raising concerns?
11:02Okay, tell me, what will you be telling the opposition leaders at this point?
11:05Because you have been a CEC yourself.
11:10I won't like to address any politics.
11:13All right, Mr. Rawat, I appreciate your time.
11:15Let me bring in former CEC, S.Y. Qureshi.
11:18Now, Mr. Qureshi, as the former CEC, how do you see the internal rift within the commission?
11:23Gyanesh Kumar versus two election commissioners he has.
11:25Is this and can this be called as a breakdown of an institution?
11:35Absolutely, it's the worst thing which could have happened to the election commission and it is totally unprecedented, totally unfortunate
11:44and cannot be allowed to continue like this.
11:49It has clearly come out that most of the decisions taken in the last one and a half years have
11:55been taken by one man, which is not the commission.
11:58Commission is two persons, the majority of two.
12:00So, all decisions taken by a single man, whosoever he may be, he may be the chairman of the election
12:07commission, but they are all illegal, full stop, illegal.
12:12So, you are saying that all decisions that have been taken by this present election commission is illegal.
12:18There are leaders in opposition who are of the opinion that all the elections which have been held under CEC,
12:24Gyanesh Kumar, should be nullified.
12:26What are your views?
12:27Is that really possible?
12:30I'm not surprised.
12:31That thing is not, it might sound too radical, but why not?
12:36If some patent, blatant illegality has happened, how can we allow the consequences of that illegality to continue?
12:46Elections have been set aside for minor irregularities in the past at different levels.
12:51It may not be the state election, but okay, in the Lampierre Vidsantava election.
12:56But that's quite normal, it's nothing unusual.
13:01So, let us go back to the drawing board, revive the 2001, January 2001 electoral roll.
13:09All the subsequent rolls should be declared non-existent, void, and update those rolls by summary revision, which we have
13:19been doing for the last 20 years, very successfully.
13:22And with those fresh, pure rolls, then do the elections.
13:28Why not?
13:29Because the elections have been stolen this way by, you know, crores of people deleted, genuine bona fide voters deleted
13:40in elections happening and results coming out.
13:43And I had heard somewhere, but can't depend on the rumour, that some gentleman bragging that I caused this victory.
13:51Those are rather sharp words here, Mr. Qureshi, to say that the elections have been stolen as a former CC
13:59yourself.
13:59So, help us understand, because, you know, I've been speaking to several former CCs and O.P. Rawat has been
14:04on my shows regularly.
14:06He says that difference of opinion is natural, that these are disagreements which happen, but the final decision is unanimous.
14:15And that's what matters, because if there are three individuals, they would have differing views.
14:22There is also the other view, Mr. Qureshi, that the two election commissioners could have asserted themselves.
14:29They had equal powers as the CEC, they could have vetoed a decision, which were earlier taken by Gyanesh Kumar.
14:39Well, they, well, they surely, they had the power in the sense that the two become a majority.
14:47So, but in the kind of atmosphere in which the things have been working, I don't know, they didn't feel
14:54bold enough to do that.
14:55But I'm very happy, at least I'm grateful to them, the nation should be grateful, at least they had some
15:00conscience.
15:01And they were writing dissident notes, and they were leaving a record.
15:05We have a trail now.
15:07If they had been only putting some marks on what was happening, then they would have gone down in my
15:13eyes totally.
15:14But, of course, it's very easy to say they should have spoken then, they should have come out openly, and
15:21all that.
15:21It's easier said than done.
15:23Mind you, two election commissioners earlier, for speaking up, exactly like that, writing a dissenting note, were eased out of
15:33the election commission.
15:34In that background, these two behaving very, very cautiously is understandable.
15:40I don't want to blame them, and in fact, any debate on what they should have done, and they should
15:45not have met the cabinet secretary and all that, I think this is red herring.
15:49You know, we are diverting the attention from the main culprit, from the main issue, to something, you can discuss
15:56it six months later.
15:57But right now, what about them, what about they, why did they not speak?
16:04That is not such an issue, but what exactly happened?
16:07As much as, I know, let us discuss what we know.
16:10And we know that things were not going on fine.
16:15Mr. Qureshi, both the Lok Sabha speaker and the Rajya Sabha chairman have rejected opposition impeachment notices against the CEC
16:24in the past.
16:25Does that close the constitutional route against him of impeachment?
16:29Or does it just push the confrontation onto the streets, because the CJP has already given an ultimatum that if
16:39Ganesh Kumar doesn't resign in 48 hours, then they are bringing, you know, starting a nationwide agitation?
16:48Yeah, because what happened in the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, the notices were rejected, but that was then.
16:56I think the situation today is radically different from what it was two days ago.
17:02Both these gentlemen who rejected these motions earlier would have to think hundred times doing it now.
17:09And I think the motion, I don't know whether there is a time bar, but the motion can be revived.
17:15Otherwise, in any case, parallelly, the people are going to come out on the streets.
17:22So that brings me to my next question, because the opposition is saying that he should be impeached.
17:29There is this pressure group, which is the CJP has given an ultimatum that he should resign.
17:35Does a street ultimatum to a constitutional authority set a dangerous precedent?
17:42Yes, it is.
17:43This is very unfortunate.
17:45You know, Election Commission of India was the most respected authority in the country for the last 70 years.
17:52Only in the last few years, for its omissions and commissions, its reputation has been going downhill.
17:59And this is the pits that what we have now achieved.
18:02Therefore, people taking to a street, because there was resentment, you remove 13 crore people, and they will keep silent.
18:09And how long?
18:10They did keep silent for the last one and a half years, which was shocking in itself.
18:16People should have been louder.
18:17Very coolly, calmly, gently, some computer sitting in Delhi is overruling the legal authority, ERO.
18:24ERO is the only authority, only authority, which can change the electoral roll by adding or subtracting a name or
18:33making any changes.
18:35There, here, the computer in Delhi, they were overruling.
18:42And the only legal authority, the ERO, who is an SDM, had no access, in most cases, to the ECINET.
18:52So, Mr. Kudeshi, that the BJP is saying that those who are raising the questions with regards to Gyanesh Kumar,
18:59of course, the Election Commission also, must explain what used to happen earlier.
19:07You know, the BJP says that during the Congress regime, the Election Commissions were functioning in questionable manner.
19:14There were newspaper clips that they are showing in the press conferences about appointment of Naveen Chawla by Sonia Gandhi.
19:20So, certainly, when it was the UPA time, the Election Commission faced similar allegations and questions.
19:28So, there is nothing unusual.
19:31No, no, I think this is total rubbish.
19:34Even if that was the case, so what?
19:36What about the current case?
19:38Because they show some Naveen Chawla clipping, so therefore, all that that has happened is justified?
19:44This what about tree is the most nonsensical thing we hear on the television these days.
19:49Oh, what about then?
19:50What about then?
19:50What about then?
19:51So, let us discuss then.
19:53Today, you forget about it.
19:54What is happening in this totally absurd kind of argument?
19:59And that brings me to my last question.
20:01And I'm looking at all that is being said by multiple opposition leaders for Mamata Banerjee, who has accused, you
20:11know, Yanesh Kumar of helping the BJP win through EVM hacking.
20:16A lot of these demands are coming.
20:19Arvind Kejriwal, Rahul Gandhi, all of them are speaking about it.
20:23And the opposition seems to be united, but do they really have evidence of a compromised election commission?
20:31Because what is clear is that when the SIR process started, there were multiple petitions that were filed before the
20:40Supreme Court.
20:41The Supreme Court had also issued guidelines.
20:46So, how do you see this entire exercise now play out, sir?
20:54Well, opposition would say what they are saying.
20:57It is logical, it is natural, but I would not go into that.
21:01But the fact that the guy in question was indulging in illegality, blatantly, he did not hold election commission meetings
21:11for four months when the exercise as serious as SIR was going on.
21:16I was in the election commission.
21:17Even in the normal times, we used to meet twice a week.
21:20And in election days, we used to meet every day, commission, all three.
21:24And SIR happening is as serious as an election happening.
21:29They should have meeting every day, but he had shared content for the other two, and he did not even
21:34call a meeting.
21:35And their protest, their questions and everything was being pushed under the carpet.
21:42So, with this kind of attitude, everything which he has done or not done comes into question and should be
21:49investigated.
21:50There should be a technical legal audit of everything that has happened in the election commission in the last two
21:57years.
21:57All right.
21:58Asma Kureshi, former election commissioner, chief election commissioner, thank you so much for joining us.