By Arun Srivastava
Election Commission of India, the constitutional body, will not tolerate any kind of rationale criticism of its erratic functioning and non-conforming approach to the constitutional provisions would not be tolerated by it. A strong message to this effect was conveyed to the journalists on Monday by the election officials of Begusarai in Bihar. Following in the footsteps of the Hindutva zealots, the ECI found convenient to file FIR for gagging the media, which has been criticising it for the carrying out the SIR, a tool to disfranchise crores of Dalits, EBCs and Muslims on the plea of not being Indian citizens.
ECI resorted to first such action in Begusarai by filing FIR against Delhi based senior journalist Ajit Anjum, working as U-Tuber. ECI in its FIR had accused him of spreading misinformation related to the ongoing voter roll revision exercise in the state and creating obstacle for the ECI staff in performing their duties. The FIR was filed on July 13 at the Balia police station, following a complaint by booth-level officer (BLO) Mohammad Ansarulhaq.
Ajit had uploaded a video on July 12 based on the complaints that the local EC office was not providing them with the receipts of the SIR forms handed over to the BLOs. He had pointed out large scale irregularities in the voter list within the Sahebpur Kamal assembly constituency. His video report appeared coinciding with the ECI claim that it was maintaining highest order of transparency and taking all possible measures to prepare a fault free voter list.
Ajit even read out the government notice hung on the wall of the ECI saying that the person has to fill two forms, which would be filled by the BLOs, signed by the person and hand over the completed and signed forms to the BLOs. The BLOs would keep one form and return the other to the concerned person as receipt. But most of the people from the constituency who told Ajit on camera that they were not given the receipts.
When confronted by Ajit, the officials outright denied the public assertion. The district administration issued a statement dismissing the allegations as “baseless,” “misleading,” and aimed at inciting public sentiment. They filed an FIR against Ajit for attempting to inciting communal harmony. It is really shocking that how could a question seeking to know why the receipts were not issued was termed as enraging communal feeling. This in fact simply confirmed that the ECI officials were guilty conscious of their action and not enrolling the names of the Muslims. Though the Begusarai centre has a number of BLOs, the local ECI officials preferred a Muslim to file the FIR. The implication is quite obvious.
ECI complaint alleges that Anjum and his team approached the officer while he was updating data and began questioning him, particularly about Muslim voters in the area. The complaint further accused “Anjum’s focus was on the claim that Muslim voters are being harassed, which is absolutely false”. By seeking to get the information about Muslims’ enrolment, Ajit did not violate the professional ethics and create any communal ill-will. In the existing situation the BJP and RSS leaders have been vociferously demanding removal of their names from the list on the ground that most of the Muslims residing in the region were Bangladeshis. Already in Delhi a significant number of Bengali Muslims of West Bengal origin have been identified as Bangladeshis.
Induction of 30 per cent independent employees as BLOs has been the tactical move of the RSS and BJP of not being accused of manipulating the enrolment process. Nevertheless the Bihar state secretary of CPI(ML) Kunal had alleged that while the ECI claims to furnish two SIR forms to one voter; one to be kept by the BLO and other to be handed over to the voter as the receipt; the fact is the BLO is provided with only one form. He sought to know from the ECI as to why it was playing this dirty game. He said since the BLOs are given only one set of form, how could they provide receipts to the voters.
He levelled serious accusation against ECI of creating a law-and-order problem in the state. He said that one BLO is asked to work for more than 12 hours to meet the dead line. Obviously the BLO is not in the position to devote sincerely to the arduous task. Questioning the intentions of ECI, he said the entire operation gives the impression of some deep-rooted design. Kunal also revealed that working under tremendous stress one BLO died while a BLO at Barsoi unable to withstand the stress quit his job. These incidents clearly underline that ECI and state administration in their quest to disenfranchise Dalits and minorities have preferred to ignore the ground realities.
The ECI bosses are even targeting the BLOs who dare to speak out their minds and point out the problems. He alleged that recently a BLO at Begusarai, where the ECI officials filed FIR against the journalist Ajit, had charged a BLO of furnishing wrong information to the media. He blamed the ECI of spreading deceptive information and passing the responsibility on the BLOs. The CPI(ML) has come to have news that at some places the BLOs do not visit the houses of the voters and fill the form sitting at their houses. Kunal cautioned the ECI officials of indulging in such dirty game else the CPI(ML) will launch a statewide protest against its design.
In a significant development ,the RJD leader Tejashvi Yadav while questioned the credibility of the ECI allegation that the BLOs working at the ground have detected the names of Bangladeshi, Nepali and Myanmar citizens. According to him, this smacks of a deep-rooted conspiracy of the ECI. Tejashvi drew a parallel with the unfounded rumour about Indian military entering into major Pakistan cities and capturing them. He said ECI is a constitutional body and it does not behove to its stature that it should feed fake and wrong news on the plea of getting the information from sources. Being a constitutional body ECI is free and competent to reveal the source. On the name of sources, it was feeding misleading and wrong news. He quipped “Esske sutra to hum mutra Samaj hate hainn” (we treat its sources as urine). Tejashvi also questioned the integrity and relevance of the voters list being prepared by the ECI.
The latest developments undeniably reveal that the ECI has been misusing the relief given by Supreme Court. The manner in which the ECI has portraying and fanning the issue of video by Ajit, simply underscores the fact it is trying to distract the attention of the people, and especially the court, from the issue of disenfranchising the dalits and minorities. While people will be busy discussing the issue of inclusion of Aadhaar, EPIC and role of BLO, the ECI will have his design through. No authority will question the relevance and feasibility of SIR, not even the Supreme Court. The fundamental issue will be buried. The manner in which the opposition is leading its struggle, it simply strengthens the notion that it is losing the war.
The opposition ought to realise that SIR has put their survival at stake. The latest instruction of the CEC to all the state electoral chiefs makes its abundantly clear that after its successful implementation in Bihar, it will implement in other states; already it has signalled the names of Bengal and Assam for the next round. Astonishingly while the Supreme Court is planning to look into the legality of the exercise, the ECI is gradually but systematically spreading its network and activity in other states with the avowed move of turning the concept of universal adult franchise a mere façade. Even while the opposition parties are waiting for Supreme Court order on July 28, though not sure which way it would go, the BJP has already started deputing team of its senior leaders to districts to ensure that the task is accomplished without any hassle. Nevertheless it is being done to remove peoples’ apprehension if at all they nurse. (IPA Service)
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