66 ex-bureaucrat write letter to President, say, 'Election Commission suffering from credibility crisis'

Ahead of the Lok Sabha election, 66 former bureaucrats have written a letter to the President Ram Nath Kovind, where they have expressed a concern over the working of Election Commission of India and said that “EC is suffering from a crisis of credibility and endangering the integrity of the electoral process.”

In the letter, the ex administrative officers had written about the violations of the Model Code of Conduct and the response of the ECI which was ‘weak-kneed’ and held that Commission was independent, fair and impartial but all these qualities have been faded in the recent times.

The letter read, “The ECI's independence, fairness, impartiality and efficiency are perceived to be compromised today, thereby endangering the integrity of the electoral process which is the very foundation of Indian democracy. We are distressed to note the misuse, abuse and blatant disregard of the Model Code of Conduct by the ruling party at the Centre.”

Listing about “glaring instances” where the poll watchdog might have gone wrong, the letter states that EC is acting in a partisan manner and taking sides as well.

The letter mentions about the recent address by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to announce India’s first anti-Satellite weapon (A-SAT). Although, after complaint filed by the Opposition leaders, the EC had given a clean chit to PM Modi and held that it was not a violation of the poll code.

The letter read, “Parading the achievements of a government in this manner after the announcement of elections is tantamount to a serious breach of propriety and amounts to giving unfair publicity to the party presently in government and that the ECI's decision does not stand up to the standards of impartiality expected of it.”