Eyebrows Raised Over CEC, ECs ‘Informal Interaction’ With PMO Officials on Nov 16

New Delhi: Is there a cloud over the autonomous character of the Election Commission? Can an independent constitutional body be “summoned” by the Prime Minister’s Office? Is another independent institution being destroyed in India? These are some of the questions raised by the Opposition on Friday after a report in The Indian Express disclosed that the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and two Election Commissioners (ECs) were told that they were “expected” to be present at a virtual meeting with PMO officials.

“Cat is out of the bag! What was whispered till now is a fact. PMO summoning ECI was unheard of in independent India. Treating EC as a subservient tool is yet another low in Modi Government's record of destroying every institution," Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala tweeted, tagging news reports in this regard.

According to the IE report, the CEC Sushil Chandra two ECs, Rajiv Kumar and Anup Chandra joined the online meeting on November 16, despite “reservations on a note from a Law Ministry official that the Principal Secretary to PM, P K Mishra, will “chair a meeting” on a common electoral roll and “expects CEC” to be present.”

“This is atrocious. How can PMO summon an independent Constitutional authority,” tweeted Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Yechury also questioned how an autonomous body, mandated to conduct free and fair elections, can be seen to be so “servile” and attend the meeting called by the PMO, adding that this could raise questions over its “neutrality & fairness”.

“This (meeting) was a day after the Election Commission received an unusually worded letter from an official of the Law Ministry — the administrative Ministry of the poll panel — that the Principal Secretary to PM, P K Mishra, will “chair a meeting” on a common electoral roll and “expects CEC” to be present.

Such wording, an official said, caused a flutter in the poll panel since it read like a “summons” that breached precedent and Constitutional norms, said a source.

For, at two previous meetings on the same subject – on August 13 and September 3 last year – EC officials took part, not the Commissioners,” said the IE report.

The issue is likely to snowball into a major controversy as it comes ahead of the crucial Assembly polls early next year in several states, including Uttar Pradesh, where the stakes for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party are high.

However, according to a PTI report citing EC sources said the interaction of CEC and ECs with the PMO was “informal” and there was no “impropriety”. The meeting was “to bridge gaps in understanding of key electoral reforms between the poll panel and the Law Ministry”, it added.

Responding to the news report that the Law Ministry had sent a letter to the EC saying that the principal secretary to the Prime Minister will chair a meeting on common electoral roll and "expects the CEC" to be present, the sources said the three commissioners did not attend that formal meeting, PTI said.

When approached by the IE reporter, CEC Chandra was unavailable for comment “but a senior EC official said that the CEC, on receipt of the note, made his “displeasure” felt to the Law Ministry and underlined that he would not attend the meeting. When asked about this note, a Law Ministry official declined to comment.”

Eventually, however, “Chandra and the other two Commissioners stayed away from the video meeting — in which their subordinates were present — as per precedent, but the three did join an “informal interaction” with Mishra immediately after”, the report added,

Reacting to the report, former CEC S Y Quraishi said PTI it was "absolutely shocking". When asked to explain his remarks, he said his words have summed up everything.

Sources told PTI that senior EC officials attended the formal meeting, besides officials from the Law Ministry.

The Legislative Department in the Law Ministry is the nodal agency for EC-related matters.

 The sources also said the result of the “informal interaction” with the PMO resulted in the Union Cabinet on Wednesday clearing various electoral reforms that the EC had been insisting be brought in the ongoing Winter session of Parliament.

One of the reforms is linking Aadhaar with electoral rolls on a voluntary basis. The other will allow eligible young people to register as voters on four dates every year. As of now, there is one qualifying date -- January 1 of every year -- to register as a voter for those who have turned 18 or above on January 1.

Usually, law ministers and legislative secretaries have been meeting the commissioners on various issues at the Nirvachan Sadan. The commissioners never call on the ministers as part of protocol since the EC is an independent constitutional body.

(With inputs from PTI)