00:00The expose on the Election Commission by the Indian Express has been the biggest talking point of the week.
00:06It's led to the opposition demanding CEC Gyanesh Kumar's resignation, denials from the EC and questions of a rift within
00:14the Commission.
00:15What exactly are the allegations? I'll break it down for you.
00:19First, some facts on the EC.
00:21Think of the ECI as a three-person constitutional body.
00:25The law says its business should, as far as possible, be conducted unanimously.
00:30If the three disagree, the majority decides.
00:34And three, well, no points for guessing, two is the majority.
00:38So, ordinary, you'll expect that if an issue comes up, all three commissioners discuss it,
00:43they decide based on majority opinion, and then it's implemented.
00:47The Chief Election Commissioner, the CEC, is Gyanesh Kumar.
00:51And then there are two election commissioners, Sukbeer Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.
00:58So, reportedly, Sandhu and Joshi formally objected at least 14 times over about 10 months
01:05to decisions and actions taken by the Commission.
01:08They alleged that important decisions were being made without their knowledge or approval, hence the dissent notes.
01:16But, majorly, if I were to break it down for you, three sticking points.
01:22First, Form 6.
01:24Form 6 is basically the application form for someone who wants to become a voter.
01:30Essentially, the ECI changed their online form so that a new applicant had to answer
01:35whether they or their parents or their grandparents appeared in the electoral roll from the previous SIR.
01:42Now, reportedly, Sandhu and Joshi, the election commissioners, had objected
01:47that this couldn't simply be done without the necessary legal or rule changes.
01:52Sandhu subsequently also described the change as unauthorized and illegal and called for its removal.
02:01The second sticking point, control of the voter database.
02:05Historically, voter rolls are supposed to have ground-level statutory officials involved in maintaining them.
02:11For example, an electoral registration officer, an ERO, is responsible for electoral roll work in their constituency.
02:21The concern raised by Sandhu and Joshi was that the new technology system, ECINET,
02:27was increasingly centralizing control of the voter database in Delhi.
02:32Joshi reportedly warned about the gradual centralization of the electoral roll database
02:37and suggested an audit to ensure that only the legally authorized officials could make these changes.
02:44Sandhu similarly expressed concerns that state-level officials were not getting complete access to the system.
02:51Issue 3. Bengal SIR.
02:54During the SIR process in West Bengal, many voters were flagged because of discrepancies.
02:59And then the Supreme Court, of course, stepped in.
03:01It became involved and required a process through which affected voters could be heard.
03:07Judicial officers ultimately dealt with many of these cases.
03:10And then the Election Commission went ahead and filed appeals concerning some voters
03:16who had been included by these judicial officers.
03:19Here again, the Election Commissioner stepped in.
03:22Sandhu asked essentially who authorized the Election Commission to file these appeals.
03:26He said neither he, Joshi, nor the current West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer
03:31had been informed about the basis or process for filing them.
03:35Now, after these details emerged, the Election Commission has responded,
03:40saying differing views are part of the decision-making process.
03:43But here's what it didn't answer.
03:46Who changed Form 6?
03:48Who filed the Bengal appeals?
03:51Why was this data centralized?
03:53This is what's led to all of the outrage against the Election Commission.
03:57And while the poll panel has responded,
04:00it hasn't answered all questions raised by the details that I've mentioned.
