Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora who assumed office in the middle of the recently concluded Assembly elections to five States, says social media is a massive challenge but bats for self-regulation and is cautious on the impact of electoral bonds in curbing black money in polls. Excerpts:
Are you satisfied in the manner in which the recent elections were conducted?
My satisfaction doesn’t count that much. It is for the people of the country to judge. But, from the feedback we have been getting, I think they went off smoothly.
How do you explain the inordinate delay in counting in Madhya Pradesh?
I have said this more than once. On one hand, we are talking of returning to ballot papers so that we have counting in five days, and on the other hand [people are complaining] just because we are used to getting results by 5 or 5:30 [p.m.]. In the case of Madhya Pradesh, a delegation had come two or three days before the poll. They had some issues and they also said every round should be initialled by all the candidates and preferably, the next round should start when one round ends and this is publicly announced. In any case, there were 13,000 additional polling stations also in Madhya Pradesh. I don’t think there was any delay per se, but if you follow the systems rigorously, that is time consuming.
Do you think certain strategies will have to be evolved by the Election Commission for the 2019 general elections to meet such challenges?
Every election is a learning experience and those who say that they don’t require learning anything, they stop growing. Since I became EC, we have had elections in Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Tripura to name a few, and all these five States. So, every single election we try to imbibe the best practices and avoid whatever aberrations may have crept in. Even if there is, for example in Madhya Pradesh, even if there is one incident where some suspicion has arisen about some polling officer or section officer, who has placed the EVM in the wrong place, the person has been suspended.
We are very clear that from our point of view, we will have zero per cent tolerance. But, after all when we hold the national elections, the 600-odd-staffed Commission expands itself to over a million, even more than that in terms of Central Armed Police Forces, railway personnel. In terms of all the huge logistics required, some mishaps could happen. We will have correctives, right from immediate action against any recalcitrant officer to even putting off a poll if required. Like it was done by the Commission in R.K. Nagar earlier in Tamil Nadu, that election was countermanded and was held again. In any case the Article 324 of the Constitution gives the Commission enough leeway to take extraordinary measures in extraordinary situations. But, all situations are not extraordinary.
In Mizoram, we had some issues in the beginning, but this time we succeeded as per the Commission’s role in having the polling of the Bru community inside the border of Mizoram. The voting was 55%, whereas the last two times it between 10% and 13%.
In Chhattisgarh, we always have phase I and II because of the Left Wing Extremism-affected districts (18) and there were reports of a possible violence from local State police but the75% turnout was encouraging. It was more a real tribute the people of India; you have a lady voter in Chhattigarh whose husband passed away in the evening a day before the poll. Yet the next day morning she went to cast her vote. So, I think, it is a tribute to the voter of the country that she wants to participate in the electoral process.
You mentioned in the context of EVMs that you are looking at 100% glitch-free elections, but this time there were certain controversies over EVMs being found in odd places —at an MLA’s place in Rajasthan and some in a school bus?
These incidents which you have named are three and there were two more…in all, five incidents in five States. First of all, the EVM was not found in the residence of the MLA. That lady officer had just stopped by the house of a relative and the EVM was parked on the road opposite the MLA’s house in a bus which had been requisitioned by the authorities. The lacuna was that it did not have a registration number, which it should have had. But, we have seen the requisition slip. In all these instances, we took immediate action. If three or four incidents mar the smooth election in 1.74 lakh polling stations, then I leave you to judge the gravity of the inherent mala fide in the electoral process.
The growth of media is keeping a 24X7 watch on the watchers, the Election Commission?
The media is most welcome. With the electronic media, there is the issue of TRPs. Social media is a different thing altogether and it travels at the speed of light. As a former I&B Secretary, I continue to hold the view that external regulation will not do; regulation has to come from inside. Having said that, on the social media side, I hope self-regulation comes in quickly as the damage is inflicted by them is irreversible. The Election Commission had set up a committee to look into the issues pertaining to the media, particularly, the social media. It will be submitting a report by December 30. In social media, at least two platforms met me, and I requested them to give their suggestions. Once the committee submits its report, we will have a full presentation by the Commission to debate it.
It [social media] remains an area of concern [during elections], but we are trying to figure out how to convert this into our strength. Obviously, the social media is not expected to perform a public relations exercise for the Commission, but at the same time, I hope some positives could also be highlighted.
What about the 22 lakh missing voters in Telangana. Their exclusion became a major issue. Also, in Assam, a lot of people have not found their names in the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC).
The Commission is not dealing with NRC till such time as the Ministry of Home Affairs formally releases some figures. On Telangana, it is very ironical that ever since these technology platforms have come into the electoral rolls, whatever the manual issues used to be, the mistakes that were not detected, are now getting detected. We have ERONet on a pan-India basis. So, in Telangana, the same people complained to the Hyderabad High Court. We gave our side of the picture and the petition was dismissed. Still we are trying to see where we could plug our loopholes. I think, in this category, it is a very preliminary observation; we are going to meet CEOs of the States that went to polls recently. We have two major agendas: one is further purification of electoral rolls and the other is the last-mile safe transportation of EVMs, with GPS-tracking and monitoring in the specially set-up control rooms, etc. This meeting should be taking place in a week or 10 days and then, we will try and work out further solutions.
You mentioned that you have been running from one to the other election. Is it time to talk about simultaneous elections for the country?
The idea of simultaneous elections has been talked about much before I came [to the Commission] and there are all kinds of views on it. But I think it is a desirable goal. We need some amendments in the laws, so it is unlikely that it will happen next year.
What are the problems you foresee in simultaneous elections?
We used to have simultaneous elections in this country till almost 1967. Thereafter, we started having elections at different times. From our side, it is the sheer logistics of simultaneous elections, EVMs and manpower, security forces etc. The amendments under consideration look at the challenges in getting the States and Centre under the same platform; a political consensus is required. As and when they come through, the logistics of the exercise though mind-boggling, is not impossible.
What role did black money play in the recent elections?
We had seized ₹300 crore in these five States and by all accounts, this is not a small sum. Ultimately, this requires a broad consensus at the political level. It is not just the job of regulatory agencies.
Have you had any conversation with political parties on this?
Mr. O.P. Rawat, my predecessor, had convened a meeting of all political parties. We are in the process of processing those recommendations and then having a discussion in the EC as a way forward.
Have Electoral bonds plugged in the role of black money in election…as was suggested by the BJP Government?
It is too early to say. As yet, we have not received the accounts of all the parties. And when we receive the accounts, within about a month or so, we will have more empirical data. Yes, [based on] accounts we have received, my officers tell me, that the cash component has relatively gone down…the Commission gave its clear opinion on this last year.
The Election Commission had come under cloud for calling the elections to Gujarat in a slightly more delayed manner as well as its role in the disqualification of AAP MLAs. Do you think, in hindsight, the EC could have avoided the charge of being partial to the powers that be?
It was, and continues to be neutral. The AAP issue is sub judice, and there is no point in my commenting on it. Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat elections happened when I had just taken over, but the Commission is a collective entity. So, based on certain inputs that were available with the Commission, we decided to stagger the dates. This has happened in the past too. If the insinuation is that it was done under any political pressure, the answer is no.
On linking of voter-IDs with Aadhaar, there are some fears that it might lead to a greater exclusion of voters?
We are still working on it, so we only have tentative thoughts. We are studying it.
