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Parties reject
Election Commissions Reforms
New Delhi, Jul. 9 2002 (INS News)
--
An all-party meeting called by the Election Commission
of India, to discuss the proposal of amending statutory
rules and format of of nomination papers, to give
effect the judgement of Supreme Court of India,
mandating candidates to disclose their criminal
antecedets as well as financial and educational
background, rejected by the leaders of all parties
and asked the government to introduce a comprehensive
legislation to curb criminalisation of politics
and bring in probity in public life.
However,
the Election Commission said that its order on seeking
criminal antecedents of candidates would stand and
would be enforced in the election to lone Upper
House seat in Maharashtra state on July 25. "The
affidavit is in position. The commission is only
following a Supreme Court directive," panel
sources said.
The
Election Commission wanted to implement the Supreme
Court directive on checking the criminal antecedents,
assets and educational qualifications of electoral
candidates at the time of filing nomination. After
the meeting, the Centre announced that a draft bill
would be prepared by the end of the current week
to counter the stiff conditions notified by the
Election Commission.
This
bill will be discussed at another all-party meeting
and then will be tabled during the forthcoming Monsoon
Session of Parliament. "There was unanimity
among political parties that such a move could be
politically misused," senior BJP leader V.K.
Malhotra said after a three-hour long meeting convened
by Union law minister K. Jana Krishnamurthi to assess
the implications of the Election Commission’s move.
The
poll panel’s order came after the Supreme Court
expressed concern over criminalisation of politics
and sought appropriate action to stop it. The Supreme
Court, to make the electorate aware of a candidate’s
antecedents, had asked the Election Commission to
frame guidelines to make it mandatory for a person
contesting parliamentary and Assembly elections
to give an affidavit with details of criminal cases
against him, past and present, his assets, and those
of his spouse and dependants, liabilities and educational
qualifications.
Mr
Krishnamurthi said after the meeting, "The
political parties realised the practical point in
asking the candidates about criminal cases registered
against them and the draft bill will contain provisions
to deal with this." When asked whether the
bill was meant to nullify the directives of the
Supreme Court, the law minister said: "We appreciate
the Supreme Court judgment. There was no scope for
any type of confrontation between Parliament and
the Supreme Court because each one is supreme in
its own sphere. Even the Supreme Court has recognised
that as far as enactment of law is concerned, Parliament
is supreme."
On
the law to be enacted, he said: "This will
be in tune with the Supreme Court order, which has
specified that the EC notification would operate
till Parliament enacts a law. Once the law is enacted
the notification would become redundant." "Government
will do its best to achieve the objective with which
the Supreme Court approached the issue of curbing
criminalisation of politics and making electoral
system more transparent," Mr Krishnamurthi
said.
Congress
leader Pranab Mukherjee said that it was felt at
the meeting that "we must have a law (on tackling
criminalisation of politics) and it should not be
left to the directives of the judiciary or any other
constitutional authority." He said that government
has accepted the suggestions of political parties
for bringing forward a legislation to replace the
poll panel guidelines after thoroughly scrutinising
them. "This was the unanimous view of political
parties," he said.
"I
have never seen such unanimity among political parties
on any issue before," Mr Malhotra said, and
added that there was no need to ask for candidates’
educational qualifications .Communist Party of India
{Marxist} general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet
said that there was consensus among political parties
to bring in a comprehensive legislation with most
of the parties saying that the Supreme Court had
gone beyond its jurisdiction.
The
veteran CPI(M) leader said that the move initiated
by the apex court was bound to be misused as "we
have been organising several protests and demonstrations
round the year" as part of political activity
and there are many cases pending against political
activists.
Categorically
stating that the ruling BharatiaJanata Party{BJP}
will not accept the commission’s recommendations
on the reforms, BJP spokesperson Arun Jaitley said
there was "near unanimity among the party members
on the particular issue." Attacking the commission’s
proposal to make election candidates declare their
dues to governmental agencies, like those of electricity
and telephone, Mr Jaitley said that such a proposal
could not be accepted. "When bills are in dispute,
the candidate cannot be prevented from contesting
elections."
The
BJP also opposed the need to make candidates declare
their assets. Mr Jaitley said the assets could be
declared by the "elected candidates to the
Speaker of the respected House." The BJP felt
the declaration of assets before polls might mean
"leaving the candidates on the whims of the
returning officers." He added: "Sweeping
powers cannot be given to the returning officer."
--
Sam
Asharaf
- South Asia Correspondent in Trivandrum, India
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