The EC can only be a neutral umpire
the commission, we called it “vulnerability mapping”. Its genesis was as follows. During the course of our preparations for the assembly election in UP in 2007, our officials reported that there were several pockets of persons that were ‘unable’ to vote in earlier elections. We dispatched observers to find out why. The reason actually stared us in the face, but we had not recognised it. It was caused thus. The locality in question often belonged to scheduled caste dwellers. The polling station was often at the other end of the village or in another village. Since they had to walk through upper caste areas, they were often intimidated on the way. We prepared a survey in the run up to the assembly election and found that about 25000 hamlets, or parts of them, were not casting their votes.
We had the two choices. The first was to relocate the existing polling station to a more central spot. But a shift required the approval of all in the fray. The second was to allow the poll station to remain, and instead create an “auxiliary” station on the doorstep of the “deprived” areas. This is what we did. Many families voted without fear for the first time in years. We perfected this. By the 2009 general elections, we put up over 100,000 auxiliary stations throughout the country. It created a quiet revolution.
The commission tries hard to level the playing field, by upholding the Model Code of Conduct as a fair umpire should. It has tried over long years to ban criminality from the electoral maidan, but that requires laws to be amended. Only Parliament can do that. Till that happens, the commission had been successful in outlawing erstwhile practices of booth capturing and violence.
Navin B Chawla is former chief election commissioner. His book ‘Every Vote Counts’ will be released in January 2019 The views expressed are personal