(This is the text of the letter Dr EAS Sarma wrote to O P Rawat, Chief Election Commissioner, Election Commission of India (ECI))
(EAS Sarma)
A survey conducted by the Centre for Media Studies (CMS) has indicated that “the Karnataka Legislative Assembly Election 2018 [has been] a “money guzzler”……various political parties and their candidates spent money in the range of Rs 9,500 to Rs 10,500 crore”. This was in addition to the large and extravagant election rallies conducted by BJP and Congress. The survey also indicated that 5.42 lakh litres of liquor was distributed among the voters. ECI may like to get the details of the survey findings from CMS.
Is it not ironic that the ATMs in the country should go dry of cash and the citizens should struggle day in and day out to obtain a few hundred rupees currency notes to meet their meagre daily needs, while the political leaders make merry, obtaining cash running into thousands of crores of rupees from nowhere and spend it nonchalantly on profligate rallies, bribe giving and what not? What has Shri Modi’s grandiose demonetisation scheme done to all this cash?
It is somewhat ironic that, despite the large number of observers appointed by ECI and the elaborate monitoring mechanisms in place, such a large-scale election spending by the political parties and their candidates should go unnoticed/ unhindered. While ECI may carry out a routine, inconsequential post mortem of the reports submitted by the individual candidates and the political parties, an irreversible damage has already been caused to the integrity of the electoral system. Who should be held accountable for this? Does not ECI have an indirect role in this?
Has ECI made an assessment of the indirect expenditure incurred by the political parties for the huge rallies held for Shri Narendra Modi, Shri Amit Shah, Shri Rahul Gandhi and the dozens of Union Ministers who took part in campaigning? I am not sure of this, in view of how the Commission had responded in the past to my complaints, especially during the Gujarat elections last year. My complaint on a possible violation of FCRA in Shri Narendra Modi undertaking an election ride in a seaplane owned by a foreign company had been ignored by the Commission, as I am yet to receive even an acknowledgement. There seems to be one law for the influential in this country and another for the ordinary mortals!
Election Commission of India (ECI) is a public authority created as such by the people and funded from the public exchequer. Like any other public authority, ECI should remain accountable to the people at large.
Karnataka elections, the Commission may note, have possibly been funded to a significant extent by some well known mining barons who have swindled the country by illegal iron ore mining, under-invoicing of iron ore exports and stashing away funds in illicit overseas accounts. Many foreign companies, including those mining barons, have been funding the two national political parties in violation of FCRA which the present NDA government has, for obvious reasons, chosen to retrospectively amend to clear the way for foreign company donations to flow freely into their coffers. In return, the political parties who have received such funds have abetted the donor mining companies to brazenly violate the law of the land to plunder India’s valuable mineral resources. Should ECI pretend that it is unaware of all this, that nothing serious has happened in the conduct of the Assembly elections in Karnataka and allow those elected in that manner to rule the State?
I may remind you that one of these mining barons was involved in a case in which he tried to give Rs 100 Crores to a judge to secure bail. CBI has the relevant record. In another case, a member belonging to the same mining group is alleged to have tried bribing yet another member of a higher judicial authority. Soon after the announcement of demonetisation of higher currency notes by Shri Narendra Modi in November 2016, the names of two members of this very same gang were mentioned in a suicide note of a government driver in Karnataka as having illegally exchanged Rs 100 Crores of prohibited currency notes in a blatant violation of the scheme of demonetisation. Have the Central investigating agencies, which are ever eager to pounce on those not belonging to the ruling party for lesser offences, investigated these alleged crimes and brought them to book? While this may not be directly linked to Karnataka elections, ECI cannot ignore the fact that the members of this very same mining fraternity have got emboldened by inaction on the part of NDA and acted against the letter and the spirit of Representation of the People Act during the latest Karnataka election. Many of them were seen rubbing shoulders with senior BJP leaders during the election rallies. Some of them even got BJP tickets and won the elections.
If ECI is truly desirous of getting at the root of electoral corruption in the latest Karnataka elections, it should engage the services of CBI, Enforcement Directorate, DRI, CBDT, SFIO, RBI and so on to get every suspicious monetary transaction during the last few months investigated, pin down the culprits and bring them to justice. If someone has won the election on the basis of corrupt electoral practices, he or she should be got disqualified and elections re-conducted.
I understand that the flow of money continues to taint elections in Karnataka. One minority party has lodged its members in a five-star hotel and another party needing their support seems to be trying to buy them out. Should authorities such as ECI watch this passively as if India’s democracy remains in tact and nothing needs to be done to upset the applecart of the corrupt political system we have in place today?
The credibility of any given institution will depend on the credibility of those who provide leadership to it. This applies to ECI as much as to any other institution. Shri T N Seshan transformed ECI’s image by going out of the way to give it the much needed muscle and establish its authority. This has enhanced its credibility as an independent institution worthy of public trust. ECI has gained a great deal of public goodwill. In the recent times, there were signs of ECI’s credibility getting eroded.
If Shri T N Seshan were to be in charge of ECI today, he would not have allowed Karnataka elections to be held in the manner they have been held. He would not have allowed those involved in corrupt practices to go scot-free, as is the case today!
Considering what I have stated above, I would earnestly appeal to you and your colleagues not to do anything that will further erode ECI’s credibility. Please come down with a heavy hand on the errant political parties and their candidates and demonstrate ECI’s 100% commitment to safeguarding the integrity of the electoral processes.
Karnataka elections present an opportunity to ECI to establish its credibility as an impartial, professional institution. I hope you will not allow that opportunity to slip away.