[Marxistindia] Yechury's letter to ECI

news from the cpi(m) marxistindia at cpim.org
Tue Aug 18 12:28:51 IST 2020


August 18, 2020
 
Press Release
 
We are herewith releasing the text of the letter addressed to Shri Sunil
Arora, Chief Election Commissioner, Election Commission of India by CPI(M)
General Secretary, Sitaram Yechury, on the proposal of digital election
campaign and the election funding. 
 
 
(For CPI(M) Central Committee office)
____________________________________________________________
 
August 17, 2020
Dear Shri Aroraji,
 
At the outset, we would like to acknowledge the fact that the ECI has put
aside its earlier decision to the exercise of franchise through postal
ballots to all voters above the age of 64 to abeyance in course of the Bihar
Assembly election. However, we are of the firm opinion that this needs to be
permanently abandoned to ensure the principle of physical verifiability of
voters over all other considerations permanently.
 
Though denied of the right of consultation before the initiation of a reform
by the Commission, as has been the practice so far, we believe that reasoned
arguments will evoke a positive response. Therefore, we are drawing your
attention to the proposal of a digital election campaign; more importantly,
the underlying substantial question of poll funding.
 
In fact, the Bihar CEO's proposal that the entire election should be held on
a virtual platform because of the raging pandemic was opposed by most
political parties, not only because of the issue of a huge access deficit ,
but massive financial resources that would have to be deployed to connect
with the voters. 
 
Consider the following developments. On the eve of the 2019 general
election, the then BJP President, Amit Shah had publicly stated that the
Party can, with its network of 32 lakh WhatsApp groups, can make any
message, true or false, viral within hours. Add to this, the finding of
International fact check websites that overwhelming majority of fake news is
generated in India.  And now on the eve of the Bihar elections, the Party
has kicked off a virtual election campaign by putting up 72,000 LED TV
monitors for Shah's speech. After holding 60 virtual rallies, the BJP has
claimed that its election campaign efforts would involve 9500 IT Cell heads
who will coordinate 72,000 WhatsApp groups, one for each polling booth, of
which 50,000 have been formed in the last two months.
 
The amount of expenditure that would be involved to put together such
manpower for a technology driven system is simply mind boggling. Even with
figures for corporate contribution available in the public domain before the
anonymous funding through electoral bonds came into vogue, it was clear that
the gap between BJP and all other parties added together in securing
corporate poll funding has widened manifold. Obviously, with the anonymous
corporate funds without any upper ceiling, will certainly be the death knell
for electoral democracy. 
 
Earlier the EC had told the SC that electoral bonds will signal "serious
repercussions on the transparency aspect of political funding of political
parties", pointing out that since the donations made through electoral bonds
have been taken out of the compulsory reporting norms thorough changes made
in the Finance Act of 2017 and subsequent changes made in the Income Tax Act
as well as the Representation of People Act.
 
"In a situation where contributions received through electoral bonds are not
reported, on perusal of contribution report of political parties, it cannot
be ascertained whether the political party has taken any donation in
violation of section 29 B of the Representation of People Act, 1951, which
prohibits the political parties from taking donations from government
companies and foreign sources," the ECI's affidavit had asserted. 
 
The ECI had further informed that all these reservations expressed in the
affidavit had already been conveyed to the law ministry through a letter
written in May 2017. Expressing further disapproval in the affidavit, it had
stated that the amendments virtually derailed ECI guidelines of August 29,
2014, requiring political parties to file reports on contributions received,
their audited annual accounts and election expenditure statements.
 
The Finance Act of 2017 has amended various laws, including the
Representation of the People (RP) Act of 1951, the Income Tax Act and the
Companies Act. Commenting further, on changes made in the Finance Act of
2016, the EC affidavit made out that it ushers in changes in the Foreign
Contribution (Regulation) Act of 2010 which would allow donations to be
received from foreign companies that have majority stake in Indian
companies; "This is a change from the existing law which barred donations
from all foreign sources as defined under the Foreign Contribution
Regulation Act. This would allow unchecked foreign funding of political
parties in India which could lead to Indian policies being influenced by
foreign companies".
 
Several experts are of the view that if the electoral bonds scheme had been
introduced to bring about greater transparency, the government must not
restrain from allowing details of such donations to be made public.
 
Therefore, even if we go by the contention of the Commission's contention on
the electoral bond regime in its affidavit before the Supreme Court, it
becomes obvious there can be no free and fair poll, not to speak of a level
playing field. 
 
Meanwhile, there are two other issues which have come to light and pose
major questions. First, the mysterious NaMo TV channel which was launched
during the Lok Sabha 2019 elections in contravention of the existing law
(Annexure 1) & then disappeared mysteriously after the polls. In Apr. 2019,
the Spokesperson ECI  had acknowledged that the channel run by DTH platforms
was paid for by the BJP. However, now it has been revealed, that the BJP in
its returns to the ECI on its expenditure account has not shown this. This
is an outright electoral offense. The immediate question that arises, has
the ECI initiated any penal action against the BJP on this account? If not,
why not?  I dare say, the absence of absolute  unambiguous firm action
seriously questions the ECI's  responsibility for ensuring a level playing
field, not to speak of weeding out electoral malpractices with a heavy hand.
 
The second issue pertains to the social media campaign of the ECI. It has
now come to light, that an advertising and social media company owned by a
BJP office bearer was hired by CEO of Maharashtra, to issue election-related
online ads during the 2019 assembly polls. Subsequently, it has been further
revealed that the Election Commission of India itself authorised government
bodies to appoint the same social media agency for the Lok Sabha 2019
elections. There is now enough material available in the public domain on
this subject. With its independent Constitutional status, the authority of
Art. 324 is a recognition of the ECI's responsibility for ensuring fair
play. Therefore, it becomes all the more necessary that ECI is not only
fair, but also explicitly appears to be so. 
 
 
Yours truly
 
Sd/-
(Sitaram Yechury)
General Secretary, CPI(M)
 
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