Former member of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet Yashwant Sinha, who joined Trinamul on Saturday, lambasted the Election Commission (EC) as the Centre’s “puppet” and its alleged bias against Mamata Banerjee.
Sinha accused the EC of having yielded to the control of the BJP-led Centre and the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duopoly. “...the way the government of India, especially Modi-Shah, has grabbed control of other democratic institutions… even the judiciary…the Election Commission too has succumbed to that control,” he said.
Responding to Wednesday’s incident at Nandigram that left Mamata, Sinha said the EC was in no place to ascertain if it was an accident or attack. “The victim (Mamata) is saying how it happened. Who can narrate it better than that? It (the EC) is a puppet in the hands of the Centre.”
“That is why there is no faith left in the Election Commission,” he added. “The victim, what she is saying, that is most important….”
“I say this with a great deal of regret, that the Election Commission no longer remains an autonomous body…. Mind you, it was not like this before,” said Sinha.
Sinha cited an instance from his career as an IAS to substantiate his argument.
He said in the run-up to the 1980 Lok Sabha polls, when the late Ram Sundar Das was the chief minister of Bihar and Sinha was his principal secretary, the state government decided to change the DGP and chief secretary, after the polls had been notified.
“The Election Commission objected, and sent a letter, saying it could not be done. Then we, on behalf of the Bihar government, sent a stinging response to the Election Commission...with every relevant provision in the Constitution. The commission was told that the likes of the chief secretary or DGP do not directly handle elections…and the commission was asked what objection they could possibly have.”
“The Election Commission stayed quiet,” he said. “The laws of the land that are there today were in place even in 1980.” He explained how things were different. “Now, such a system has been put in place gradually that there is this creeping acquisition (of near-total control) when the commission notifies the polls.”
According to Sinha, there are no constitutional provisions for the commission to exercise the kind of control it exerts nowadays, and that according to the Constitution, the EC controls only the machinery directly involved in the conduct of elections.
“...Who will be the chief secretary, the commission will decide. Who will be the director-general of police, the commission will decide…. Where did the Election Commission get this authority?” he asked.
Sinha also lambasted the EC for planning an eight-phase election in Bengal. “On what basis? ...I had tweeted, why not 294 phases, one for each seat? Keep conducting elections, and your authority will continue. Is there any meaning to this?” he asked.
“The strangest thing is that districts have been split into multiple phases. These decisions have been taken in the control of Modi-Shah, and taken to give the BJP the advantage. I strongly oppose this,” he added.
BJP’s state chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya feigned shock at Sinha’s views. “Even he (Sinha) has started saying this? Already? Well, it is the beauty of Trinamul, that it can teach its language so quickly to those it touches.”
