Congress leader Rahul Gandhi became the face of the opposition’s protest in Delhi on Tuesday against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and his controversial special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Climbing atop multi-layer steel barricades and waving the tricolour, he personified the national political resistance against SIR, having consistently attacked the poll body for years over what he called ‘vote theft’ under Kumar’s watch as CEC. Rahul then slipped out of the police cordon and entered the premises of Akashvani Bhavan, adjacent to the Election Commission of India’s office, along with sister Priyanka and others. They were later briefly detained. However, there was no untoward event, unlike the pitched battles and police firing during the campaign against the NEET-UG paper leak a few months ago.
The mass mobilisation came a day after the Supreme Court denied having allowed the ECI to modify the statutory Form 6, the document used for voter enrolment, in its May 27 judgement on Bihar’s SIR. A declaration attached to Form 6 became contentious after the other two election commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, reportedly objected to it. However, the ECI later claimed the declaration was part of the Bihar SIR, which had been upheld by the Supreme Court. The court also refused to pass any ex parte order against Kumar, instead issuing notices to him, the ECI and the law ministry to file their affidavits before the next hearing on October 27. It further sought the file notings on all SIR-related orders to verify whether they were unanimous. If any decision was taken unilaterally, the court assured it would annul it.
The file notings could possibly unravel differences of opinion within the ECI on critical SIR-related matters and how they were reconciled, if the poll body’s claim that all final decisions were taken by consensus is anything to go by. Chances are they would also reveal the “naraz fufa” (disgruntled uncle) who allegedly leaked the rumblings within the ECI to the media. Kumar can only blame himself for the perception of arrogance in his dealings with the opposition so far. Files ought to show whether or not he gave equal respect to his fellow election commissioners. Let the relevant official records speak for themselves. That’s worth waiting for.