Former Union Law Minister Ashwani Kumar on Friday said the Election Commission’s “failure” to address the Congress’s concerns over the personal attacks on the former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, dented its credibility.
“Considering the gravity of the remarks that have been made and the fact that they are the most reprehensible, the failure of the Election Commission to address the concerns raised by the Congress does put a question mark over the fairness of its decision-making. It does dent the credibility of the Election Commission,” he said in an interview to The Hindu.
“This is unfortunate, and represents yet another challenge to our democracy. If people lose faith in the institutions of libertarian and liberal democracy, the credibility of the consent obtained through electoral verdicts itself will be in doubt,” he said. Mr. Ashwani Kumar, who had briefly supervised the functioning of the Election Commission as the head of the nodal Ministry, said political discourse had hit a “new low”, with repeated accusations being hurled at the late Rajiv Gandhi by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “I firmly believe that our democracy is facing a serious challenge, not only on account of the rancorous discourse but also the one that has broken all barriers of civility and decency. I don’t believe that democracy and decency are mutually exclusive. In the past, despite the differences that the leaders had, nobody made an ideological opposition into a personal enmity,” he said.
Responding to the BJP’s charge that Congress president Rahul Gandhi, too, had called Mr. Modi a “thief” over the Rafale fighter jet deal, he said: The Congress president has explained how the people of India had coined that word…While the Prime Minister has the right to defend himself, to rebut the charge, but he cannot use...his high office to diminish the political discourse and malign his predecessor who is not in this world to answer the charges.”
Mr. Ashwani Kumar said the Congress’s focus in this election was on “the idea of India”. “It is not a hackneyed phrase. It is about inclusion as against exclusion, freedom versus fear, equality versus inequality, tolerance versus intolerance and harmony versus discord. It is within these foundational framework that NYAY [the minimum income guarantee scheme] has to be seen. If there is one theme that will survive the election, it is the obligation of every Indian citizen to protect the idea of India,” he said.
