Jaitley slams Cong over criticism of EC
NEWDELHI: The Election Commission cannot be “browbeaten”, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley said as he hit out at the Congress on Wednesday for targeting the panel for not declaring poll dates for Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh simultaneously.
His remarks came on a day the panel announced the Gujarat assembly elections in two phases — December 9 and 14.
“Just a couple of weeks ago, when the Rajya Sabha elections were being held in Gujarat, I thought the Congress was singing praises of the same Election Commission. The commission is not supposed to be browbeaten by a disgruntled or a losing political party. The Election Commission is duty bound to act as per law,” Jaitley said.
The poll panel defended its position, saying pending relief work in the state’s flood-ravaged parts prompted the delay in announcing the poll schedule.
Chief election commissioner AK Joti dismissed the Opposition’s allegation that it had given the BJP an undue political advantage in Gujarat as it announced the poll dates 13 days after Himachal Pradesh.
Responding to a question whether the panel had erred, Joti said: “Nothing is written in stone … decisions are taken on the basis of the prevailing situation and no situation is static.”
The Congress has alleged the delay allowed the BJP to announce vote-luring projects that wouldn’t have been possible had the dates being fixed and the poll code of conduct enforced.
Countering the Opposition’s charge, finance minister Jaitley asked if it is fair that the duration of the code of conduct in both states is similar, though elections are held four to five weeks apart.
He referred to a Supreme Court directive that made the code of conduct binding to all when the first NDA government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee was
in power.
“The other discussion was that because governance is paralysed during the code of conduct, it cannot be an indefinitely long because you are making it binding,” he said, underscoring the debate over the code in 2000-2001.
“The election duration is about three weeks and so the code of conduct should be three weeks and a few weeks over and above that. It would be wholly against the spirit of democracy if the code of conduct is extended to 70-80-90 days,” he added.
Chief election commissioner Joti cited the destructive floods in seven districts of Gujarat this monsoon to counter the criticism. He said the floods were “an unprecedented situation in which 229 people died”.
Joti said a distinction was made between short-term and long-term relief measures in the extent of work carried out in the past 13 days. “It (relief) is not a one-day or one-week effort…”
He said the problem of land erosion was estimated to require ₹863 crore, based on the feedback from the state. Till September 25, ₹121 crore was disbursed, which then rose to ₹557 crore by October 25, and ₹305 crore is awaiting disbursal, according to him.
“The state government has to give financial aid for 42,000 damaged houses, assessment done shows relief has been given to 27,343, and as on October 25, those awaiting relief are 4,569. The third problem was the 17 breaches in the main Naramada canal and the relocation of 35 villages,” Joti said.
The poll panel’s justification, however, failed to cut ice with the Opposition.
They alleged that the slew of government announcements in 13 days, including loan at 0% interest for farmers, permanent jobs for sanitary workers, and big-ticket infrastructure projects were evidence that the level playing field was disrupted.