New Delhi: The Congress warned the Election Commission (EC) Friday that it would take “legal recourse” if the poll watchdog did not desist from using a “condescending tone” in its responses to the party’s complaints—the latest of which questioned the fairness of the counting process in the Haryana assembly polls.
In a letter to the EC, nine senior Congress leaders wrote that the Commission, in its response to their apprehensions about the Haryana counting, had not just “diminished” complaints and petitioners, but strengthened the impression of stripping itself of the “last vestiges of neutrality”.
The letter said had the Congress been a bad faith actor, it would not have “painstakingly” documented its grievances and presented them with legal precedent and arguments, but focused on “naming and shaming” the Commission with examples from the EC’s own recent history “which do not shroud it with glory”.
“The recent tone of the Commission’s communications to the INC is a matter that we refuse to take lightly anymore. Every reply from the EC now seems to be laced with ad-hominem attacks on either individual leaders or the party itself. The INC’s communications confine themselves to issues and are written with a regard for the high office of the CEC and his brother Commissioners… However, the EC’s replies are written in a tone that is condescending,” the Congress letter stated.
The leaders further said: “If the current EC’s goal is to strip itself of the last vestiges of neutrality, then it is doing a remarkable job at creating that impression. Judges who write decisions do not attack or demonise the party raising the issues. However, if the EC persists then we shall have no choice but to seek legal recourse to expunge such remarks.”
Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal, former Rajasthan and Haryana chief ministers Ashok Gehlot and Bhupinder Singh Hooda, party treasurer Ajay Maken, and Rajya Sabha MPs Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Jairam Ramesh, the Congress communications head, are among the signatories to the letter.
Congress grouse about EVMs
Following the Haryana results on 8 October, the Congress, which failed to reclaim the state from the BJP, unprecedentedly rejected the verdict, saying it was “a victory for manipulation, the victory of subverting the will of the people and a defeat for transparent democratic processes”.
Subsequently, it approached the poll body, flagging instances of electronic voting machines (EVMs) found with 99 percent battery capacity during and after counting. These registered BJP wins, the party said, while those at 60-70 percent charge were Congress victories.
The EC responded on 29 October, saying the display of 99 percent charge on the control unit might not accurately reflect the actual state of battery capacity.
“The display of the status of battery on the CU is primarily to facilitate the technical and poll duty teams to be alert to replace/change battery units. Hence, no record keeping of power pack battery levels is provided for, nor is it required. (h) It has fail-safe features i.e. its ‘discharge’ or replacement cannot erase or, in any way affect the vote count or any other operational features,” the EC said in response.
The Commission also retorted that “such frivolous and unfounded doubts have the potential of creating turbulence when crucial steps like polling and counting are in live play, a time when both public and political parties’ anxiousness is peaking”, and accused the Congress of raising “the smoke of a ‘generic’ doubt about the credibility of an entire electoral outcome exactly in similar manner as it has done in recent past”.
‘EC has not indulged us’
The Congress junked the EC response in Friday’s statement, saying its answer on the fluctuating battery capacities sought to “confuse rather than clarify” and amounted more to a “standard and generic set of bullets” on how the machines functioned rather than a specific clarification on the complaint.
The party also took exception to the EC’s assertion that it was making “exceptional consideration” by allowing the Congress to submit its representations “outside the established process”.
The Commission, the Congress fumed, had forgotten that it was a body set up under the Constitution and charged with the discharge of certain crucial functions, both administrative and quasi-judicial.
“If the Commission grants a recognised National Party a hearing or examines issues raised by them in good faith, it is not an ‘exception’ or ‘indulgence’. It is the performance of a duty which it is required to do. If the Commission is refusing to grant us a hearing or refusing to engage on certain complaints (which it has done in the past) then the law allows recourse to the Higher Courts’ extraordinary jurisdiction to compel the EC to discharge this function (as happened in 2019). So let us disabuse the EC of this notion that it has in any way, shape or form indulged us,” the letter said.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
Also read: Haryana debacle hurts Congress leverage. Demanding allies, satraps rear heads as more key polls loom