Reacting to a report highlighting critical problems in the Election Commission’s functioning, Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of violating a foundational principle of democracy. the top election officer got 10, whereas the other two election commissioners got none, he quipped While one person gets one vote in elections.
“The funny part is that one man, one vote, one woman, one vote is part of the basic structure of the Constitution. And the funny part is that this Election Commission, which is the policeman for one man, one vote and fair elections, is itself not having one man, one vote. Because without this, you can’t have free and fair elections.
It is having one man, 10 votes and two men, zero votes,” he said, referring to an Indian Express report that claimed Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected to several decisions taken by the poll body without keeping them in the loop.
He promised that the Congress would seek Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation. One of these decisions is an amendment to Form 6, a form that every adult has to fill to become a voter. The poll body said the report highlighted internal notes spread over a period of 10 months but overlooked approvals, decisions, instructions, and initiatives.
The newspaper reported, citing its investigation, that Sandhu and Joshi had formally objected “on record” at least 14 times to several poll body decisions. The report said a new question was added to the form about the existence of parents or grandparents in the “electoral roll of last SIR”. The two Election Commissioners also flagged the alleged centralisation of the electoral roll database, according to the report. The Congress leader said the poll body’s response was a “generic, delightfully vague, Alice in Wonderland” statement.
