'If goal is to strip itself of neutrality, EC doing remarkable job': Congress slams poll body over denial of irregularities in Haryana elections

New Delhi: The war of words between the Congress and the Election Commission escalated on Friday with the former hitting back at the poll body for the “tone” of its communications targeting it, saying the poll body’s recent history “do not shroud it with glory” and it refuses to take it "lightly any more”.

The Congress, in its letter signed by nine leaders, said it was “not surprised” that the EC has “given itself a clean chit” through a “generic” response focussed on diminishing “specific” complaints about irregularities in 26 constituencies during the Haryana elections.

The letter signed by leaders like K C Venugopal, Ashok Gehlot and Jairam Ramesh, came as a response to EC’s October 29 letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge asking it to conduct responsibly at sensitive electoral stages to “avoid possibilities of precipitation of public unrest and chaos”.

In the three-page response, the Congress leaders said they would “normally have let it be at that” but the “tone and tenor, the language used and the allegations made” against the party in the EC letter has compelled them to submit a counter-response.

“The recent tone of the Commission’s communications to the Congress is a matter that we refuse to take lightly any more. Every reply from the EC now seems to be laced with ad-hominem attacks on either individual leaders or the party itself,” the letter said.

The leaders said they would not have approached the EC with “painstakingly documented” grievances backed by legal precedents and arguments, if they were “bad faith actors”. Instead, the letter said, they would have focussed on naming and shaming the EC “with examples from the EC’s own history which do not shroud it with glory”.

“We would highlight that over a 100 complaints against the Prime Minister and the Home Minister, the EC has taken action in precisely zero complaints while calling our party president (Kharge) and former party president (Rahul Gandhi) to account for their actions/speeches,” the leaders said.

“We would point out how the EC never published a dissent note, actively suppressing it instead, by a former Commissioner…We would point out how the EC as almost always fought any move for transparency and increase in VVPAT verification numbers, with the same having to be ordered by the Supreme Court,” the letter added.

The Congress challenged the EC to fact check their claims since it (poll body) finds the Congress’ misgivings to be based on phantoms. "We have many such examples, far more than the same 2-3 examples the EC seems adamant on repeating."

The leaders argued that the party’s communications confine themselves to issues but the EC reply is in a “condescending” tone. “If the current EC’s goal is to strip itself of the last vestiges of neutrality, then it is doing a remarkable job at creating that impression,” it said while warning of taking legal recourse to expunge such remarks if the poll body continues to do so.

Referring to the EC finding a “pattern” in Congress’ allegations of poll irregularities, the letter said they approached the EC with whatever information they could gather. Many times, they said, the EC had found merit in their information.