Suddenly, the media was flooded with news about 272 “eminent” citizens writing an open letter criticising the Opposition. Their eminences were up for public scrutiny, a lot of muck came out, their fraternities in civil services, judiciary and defence didn’t support them and all of them quietly disappeared into the woodwork. I’ve known some of them personally and their past and current conduct is unable to withstand that public glare. One of them was part of my Yoga group and was known as completely unstable, with a long trail of controversies including a judicial case. Another one was so misogynistic and derogatory in a lecture in a girl’s college that the students and alumni were up in arms and he had to apologise. Yet another one was hauled up for filthy, obscene comments on young girls on his X account. At least one of them has featured in my blogs in the past and not in any flattering light. Several have corruption and disproportionate assets cases pending against them. However, this piece is not about the personae but about the contents of their letter.
It starts with “We, the senior citizens of civil society, …” and concludes with “Civil society reaffirms …” as though this bunch are the (sole) thekedaars of senior citizens and/ or civil society in this country. I’m senior and a citizen of the country (at least, until Gyanesh Kumar decides otherwise) and a member of the civil society and I don’t recall giving them the right to speak on my behalf. So, they should’ve written “We, the self-appointed senior citizens of civil society …” and “We, without any authority regarding civil society, reaffirm …”
These thekadaars have suddenly got very worked up about Opposition’s criticisms of the functioning of the Election Commission of India (ECI) and have expressed “grave concern.” Looks like, they were not ‘concern’ed about the conduct of ECI or the mockery that is the appointment of the Election Commissioners, bypassing of rule of law in so-called bulldozer justice, garlanding of convicted mob-lynchers by Union Ministers, hounding of senior civil servants through arrests and jail, incarceration of activists on specious grounds without bail, appointment of judges in the face of dissent in the collegium and so on. Possibly they’ve concerns about these but these concerns are not “grave” enough for them. Since they’ve never affirmed anything about any of these, where is the question of “re-affirm”ing?
According to these worthies, ECI has been the epitome of transparency and rectitude. Not so, SIRs. It fought tooth and nail against inclusion of Aadhaar in the prescribed documents in SIR (Special Intensive Revision) verification claiming that Aadhaar was not a proof of citizenship. However, the 11 documents prescribed by them, with the exception of the passport, were also not proof of citizenship. Obviously, they were not allowing Aadhaar just because it was readily available to all but some (probably targeted) sections didn’t have the other documents. I checked with my household help in West Bengal. None of those documents except Aadhaar is available with them. When other documents were used merely for identification, why couldn’t Aadhaar?
Their eminences have talked about “uncouth rhetoric.” Is it correct that they didn’t find “50 crore ka girlfriend”, “Jesey cow”, “Didi-o-Didi”, “Mujra,” etc. uncouth at all?
No, opposition is not able to form governments in some states because of the ECI, they are forming them in spite of blatant partisanship of the ECI but for which the opposition would’ve bagged many more states and the ones they won, with handsomer margins. Had the ECI been transparent and fair, they would’ve stopped crediting of those Rs. 10,000 in the accounts after poll announcement in Bihar; they’d have banned the so-called jeevika didis who were actually campaigning for a particular party with largesse from us, the taxpayers … The 2024 results would also have been very, very different.
It is notable that the eminences chose to remember T.N. Seshan but forgot one James Michael Lyngdoh who postponed the elections in Gujarat because of reasons well-known to all. Even Seshan would’ve done things far differently from what the ECI has been reduced to now.
I agree with their eminences that civil society and the citizens of India should stand firmly with the Election Commission. However, that doesn’t mean standing with the Election Commissioners when they indulge in such egregious conduct. Yes, we should save the Election Commission, starting with demanding the repeal of that horrible Act nullifying a Supreme Court judgement, restoration of CJI in the selection panel, removal of the current lot of Commissioners, preservation/sharing of CCTV footage of the voting process and general transparency.
The letter talks about existential question caused by fake or immigrant voters. Well, disenfranchisement too is an existential question when a genuine citizen is a victim just because he has no document other than an Aadhaar card or a previous Voter Identity card. It is not the job of the ECI to check immigration, rather its job is to see that no genuine voter is left behind. As far as the ECI is concerned, it should bear the onus of disproving citizenship rather than putting the onus of proving citizenship on the voter.
Finally, where did this term “eminent citizens”
come from? The letter refers only to “senior citizens of civil society.” Who
gave this term to the signatories? More importantly, where is the eminence?!
