Congress slams Modi govt for summoning EC chief to PMO

The Congress said this 'was unheard of in independent India'

Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala. Credit: PTI File Photo

The Congress on Friday criticised the BJP government for making Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and the two other Election Commissioners interact with an official at the office of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The opposition party accused the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of treating the EC as “a subservient tool”.

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Chandra and the two other Election Commissioners, Rajiv Kumar and Anup Chandra Pandey, had a virtual meeting with the Principal Secretary at the PMO, P K Mishra, on November 16. An official of the Ministry of Law and Justice had earlier written to the EC, conveying that Mishra would expect Chandra to be present at a meeting on common electoral roll.

The CEC did not attend the meeting as the way the Ministry of Law had conveyed the PMO’s expectation for his participation in the meeting had not been in sync with the stature of the EC – an autonomous constitutional authority. The senior officials of the commission attended the meeting, but later the CEC and the two other Election Commissioners also had an informal interaction with the Principal Secretary of the PMO.

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“(The) PMO summoning (the) ECI (Election Commission of India) was unheard of in independent India,” Congress’s general secretary and chief spokesperson, Randeep Surjewala, posted on Twitter. “Treating EC as a subservient tool is yet another low in Modi Govt’s record of destroying every institution.”

The communiqué from the union Ministry of Law and Justice to the EC seeking the CEC’s presence in the meeting with the PMO Principal Secretary raised the questions of constitutional propriety. Chandra, along with Kumar and Pandey, apparently chose to attend the informal interaction with Mishra in order to find a middle way between completely disregarding the expectation of the PMO and lowering the dignity of the EC by attending the main meeting.

The Congress and the other opposition parties repeatedly criticised the Modi government for allegedly trying to use the EC for the advantage of the ruling BJP.

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