“Unrest begins with a narrative. Anarchic and fringe elements then occupy the vacuum. Some are homegrown. Some take their cues from beyond our borders,” added the strongly worded letter — which comes amid massive protests by the Opposition against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the voter list revision.
A group of 42 retired judges have written an open letter in which they have warned against attempts to undermine the Election Commission and other institutions.
Such attempts, they argued, will erode people’s faith and when the “ballot loses meaning, the street gains it”.
In the strongly worded open letter, they have expressed grave concern over a sustained campaign to undermine the Election Commission, judiciary and other constitutional institutions.
Victories won on the same machines go unquestioned. The retired judges have expressed grave concern over the ongoing campaign to undermine the Election Commission, judiciary and other constitutional institutions. The letter included sharp jabs at the Congress and the Cockroach Janata Party, which are at the forefront of the agitation, without naming either. When the Commission seeks a sworn declaration, none is filed. Electronic Voting Machines are blamed only after defeat. A party that governed this nation for over five decades now claims that the very system which elected it is rigged,” the letter read. “It does not act alone. Activist outfits with a long record of selective litigation lend these claims a veneer of legality. They file petition, one after the other. They seldom file proof. The courtroom becomes a stage, and when the judgment is delivered, it is criticised whenever it does not serve their interests. Vitriol is then amplified and disseminated on an industrial scale, with the deliberate aim of eroding public confidence in a well-established and widely trusted judicial system,” it added.
They have questioned allegations of “vote theft” without supporting evidence, warning against repeatedly branding constitutional authorities as “thieves” and “compromised”. “Allegations of “vote theft” are made at press conferences, not before courts. Earlier this week, Former Supreme Court judge Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman expressed serious concerns over the Election Commission’s functioning, saying people’s right to vote “is at great peril” and “very, very disturbing things are happening in our country today”. Supreme Court Justice Ujjal Bhuyan said any process that takes away the voting rights of a huge number of Indian citizens is “a negation of the constitutional order”. “No authority can do it; no court can condone it,” he had said.
