BENGALURU: In a scathing indictment of the Election Commission of India (ECI), RTI activist Venkatesh Nayak has accused the poll body of operating under a “deliberate opacity doctrine — systematically denying even the most basic information it claims to collect from across the country”.
“Appealing against these evasive replies is a waste of time,” he said, pointing to a pattern where the ECI’s first appellate authority “invariably upholds them without batting an eyelid”. The second appeal process, he warns, is so paralysed by an understaffed Central Information Commission — with eight vacancies — that hearings are unlikely within a year.
In his first RTI intervention, Nayak probed the Bihar Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls. But under law, no one can slip into the rolls without an Electoral Registration Officer’s approval after a detailed 13-step verification, he said.
If ineligible names are still getting through, the responsibility lies squarely with EROs and their assistants Yet, when asked for legal provisions to punish such officials, and for a list of action taken since 2015, the ECI stalled, replying after 35 days with vague, non-committal answers, and refusing to even forward the RTI to relevant state officers, he said.
Section 32 of the Representation of People Act, cited by ECI, is “too weak” to deal with deliberate wrongdoing and the Commission has no record of ever invoking it against errant officers, Nayak argued. “Is this because they’ve never acted, despite knowing about ineligible entries. Or are they shielding their own officials,” he asked.
Nayak’s second RTI targeted the ECI’s claim of holding thousands of meetings with political parties this year — 40 by chief electoral officers, 800 by district election officers, and 3,879 by EROs, engaging 28,000 party representatives. Every CEO was required to send an action taken report to the Commission.
Yet, when asked for the dates, agendas, party lists, ATRs, and follow-up actions, the ECI had none of the information. “How can they claim they have no record of it. Either they’re lying, or their own officers are ignoring orders,” he said.
Retired secretary to government MG Devasahayam said, “I also had a similar experience of ECI denying information under the RTI Act despite strictures and orders passed by the Central Information Commission. In the past few years, the Election Commission has become extremely secretive.’’ Nayak warned that secrecy will destroy whatever credibility the Commission has left. “This is not the conduct befitting a constitutional authority with sweeping powers,” he said. Nayak is now urging Opposition parties to publicly disclose what issues they raised in these closed-door meetings to expose what ECI is refusing to reveal.