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More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

SIR aside, why BJP is not counting its chickens for a non-vegetarian CM in Bengal

The BJP has been celebrating the deletion of 27 lakh voters during the SIR in West Bengal under CEC Gyanesh Kumar, as the majority of them are from Muslim-dominated districts.

During an interaction with media persons last December, a powerful Election Commission functionary snapped at a reporter from a prominent English newspaper: “Tu kya likhati rehti hai (what the heck do you keep writing?)” He was upset with the reporter for quoting a former chief election commissioner who wasn’t very charitable about the functioning of the poll watchdog. Other reporters intervened to mollify him.

ECI beat reporters were not surprised, though. They had seen it coming way back in February that year—days before then-CEC Rajiv Kumar retired. While talking to reporters in the presence of this EC functionary, Kumar showed his appreciation for them, saying if the media wrote 10 reports about the election commission, six were positive. The functionary interjected: “I would want all 10 reports to be positive.” I wouldn’t name that functionary because these exchanges happened during informal interactions.

I was reminded of these exchanges involving that unnamed EC functionary when I heard about the altercation between CEC Gyanesh Kumar and Cooch Behar South Observer Anurag Yadav, an Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS officer, last week. Yadav didn’t remember the exact number of polling booths in his jurisdiction, triggering Kumar’s wrath. Yadav told him that he too had given 25 years of his life in public service and the CEC couldn’t treat a senior officer like that. The Cooch Behar South observer got marching orders within hours.

Anurag Yadav shouldn’t mind it. He is not the only one. CEC Gyanesh Kumar knows his powers—and the life-long immunity or protection from any legal proceedings over any action he undertakes as part of his duty under a 2023 law. He is exercising those powers at will. He has transferred scores of IAS and IPS officers, including Director Generals of Police and Chief Secretaries, in poll-bound states, virtually putting a question mark on their professional integrity and neutrality. The CEC wouldn’t tell us how he concluded that a certain IAS or IPS officer would come in the way of free and fair elections and how he chose their replacements.

Recall how the bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant pulled up the West Bengal CS, DGP and Malda DM and SP for the gherao of judicial officers in Sujapur. As it was, all these four officers were appointed by the Election Commission. That suggests the level of arbitrariness in the transfers and postings of IAS and IPS officers by the........

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