New Delhi: After at least 124 former civil servants, with direct or indirect involvement earlier in India’s electoral process, wrote an “open letter to the citizens of India” on Saturday, one of its signatories and former Indian diplomat Bhaswati Mukherjee said that the former civil servants wanted to make people understand that a “distorted narrative” was being spread against the Election Commission of India (ECI)’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The Opposition as well as the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) have been staging protests, demanding Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over alleged irregularities in the SIR process.
Speaking exclusively to IANS, Mukherjee said: “We (former civil servants) were motivated by a desire to make the people of India understand that a distorted narrative was being spread—that India’s democracy is in danger, that there has been ‘vote chori’, that we are not a democracy and are like a banana republic, that all elections of the last two years should be cancelled and that India’s constitutional institutions are corrupt and faulty.”
“We wanted to explain to the people of India that the entire exercise of revision of voter rolls by the Election Commission, which is a constitutional body, was intended to ensure that the voter list is updated. Many have unfortunately died, some have migrated and changed nationality, and many young and new voters have come and have to be enrolled,” she added.
Highlighting the issue of illegal infiltration, Mukherjee said: “At the same time, in some states—particularly, for instance, in my home state of West Bengal—there are many illegal voters who have drifted in from Bangladesh, taken false Aadhaar cards, and pretend that they can vote. They should go back to their own country and vote. So, it was a perfectly legitimate exercise.”
She added that people should help each other with technology during the SIR process since not everyone is tech-savvy.
“It is not good to either spread panic or give an erroneous impression that some irregularities are taking place,” Mukherjee said, adding that it is possible to re-enroll oneself in the voter list even if a genuine voter gets left out.
The former diplomat said: “We are surrounded by countries which are with are either semi-democracies or democracy under the control of the military, but we are a thriving democracy. It’s fine if people have differing opinions but we should not spread false narratives.”
Mukherjee also added: “We (former civil servants) have no agenda, we just want to set the record of our country so that our reputation of a flourishing democracy does not get destroyed or distorted”, while asserting that there is no sinister motive behind voter roll revision.
The former civil servants also condemned the use of “rigged” without evidence in the letter.
Bhaswati Mukherjee said: “I have said there is no voter rigging. We have an electoral system that is admired worldwide. We have Electronic Voting Machines which the US still does not.”
She also added that India has provided technical assistance to many countries regarding the conduct of electoral process.
“I recall in my career, we have provided assistance to those who wanted to know how to set up an electoral commission, why is it supposed to be a Constitutional body, and also how to remove an Election Commissioner,” she said.
The former diplomat added that according to the Constitution, the only way to remove an Election Commissioner is through impeachment in Parliament, “not through mobocracy or violence on the streets”.
“This kind of politics is harmful for the country,” Mukherjee cautioned.
–IANS–
