Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Manish Tewari on Thursday demanded the constitution of a joint parliamentary committee to review the working of the Election Commission over the past few years.
Speaking to The Tribune amid growing pressures on the EC to demonstrate its integrity with respect to the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, Tewari said only a JPC can look into what had gone wrong with the Commission. Chandigarh Lok Sabha MP said Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar must immediately quit and the electoral roll drafting process should then restart.
“There should be a de novo exercise with regard to reconstituting the electoral roll and obviously not under the current Election Commission or at least not with the Chief Election Commissioner presiding over the Election Commission. So, first and foremost, the Chief Election Commissioner needs to step down,” Tewari said when asked what immediate steps the Commission needed to take to redeem its sanctity after reports emerged that two Election Commissioners had voiced disagreements with the SIR process on multiple occasions.
Secondly, Tewari said, there has to be oversight over the functioning of the Election Commission. “So therefore, a joint parliamentary committee should be constituted to go into what has been going on in the Election Commission over the last couple of years. And most importantly, a way forward has to be worked out, which has the consent of all the stakeholders to the process,” he said, backing the revival of impeachment proceedings against Gyanesh Kumar should he choose not to step down voluntarily.
Tewari added that with things in the public domain with regard to the infirmities in the working of the EC, the two Election Commissioners “owed it to the nation to come out and speak publicly”. He noted that the Election Commissioners “owe it to the nation to come and tell what really impelled these disagreements, what made them knock the door of the Cabinet Secretary to the country in an absolutely truthful and unvarnished manner”.
