People's Democracy

EC Urged To Focus On Gujarat

WELCOMING the Central Election Commission’s recent moves to make the electoral process more transparent and accountable, two groups from Mumbai and Delhi, Communalism Combat and SAHMAT have in a memorandum to the CEC urged him to apply the very same criterion that it is considering in the state of West Bengal to the state of Gujarat, where a dire need exists to restore people’s faith in the Indian Constitution and democracy.”

In a memorandum sent to the CEC on March 24, the two groups have stated that they  wish to draw the CEC’s attention to the strong need to monitor the electoral process in the state of Gujarat.  They urged the commission to ensure that all polling booths in the state of Gujarat are managed by at least 50 per cent of personnel deputed from other states to remove any fear of manipulation or intimidation. The Gujarat state apparatus has come in for severe and unfavourable scrutiny over the past 24 months or so.

“To restore faith in the system these steps by the CEC are a must. This will ensure not only that the local populace is allowed to vote without fear or favour but also that a check is kept on local polling officers who are under the direct control of a vindictive state establishment in the state of Gujarat.

“While at the time of violence, this complicity was manifest in abject police and administrative complicity and ineptness in protecting innocents from rape and murder and wholesale destruction of agricultural and other property, post-carnage, over the past two years, this complicity has manifest itself in a subversion of different wings of the state especially connected with the prosecution of the guilty. The role of IAS officers under the present regime and the equally deplorable conduct of the IPS officers and police cadres [well-documented in Crimes Against Humanity, a Concerned Citizens Tribunal into the Carnage] has been matched by the role of public prosecutors in abdicating their constitutional mandate. All or many sections of society appear to be held in vindictive grasp by a political leadership that has no respect for the rule of law enshrined in the Indian Constitution.

The memorandum was signed by Teesta Setalvad, Javed Anand of Communalism Combat and Rajendra Prasad, Ram Rehman of SAHMAT.