Electoral Bonds are undemocratic, have killed transparency and legitimised Crony Capitalism: former CEC

Former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) SY Quraishi, a doctorate in communication and social marketing, is known for expressing his opinion freely and fearlessly. He headed the CEC from July  2010 to June 2012 the time when EVM controversy started and was the one who proposed and implemented VVPAT to address the issues raised by various political parties.

During his two year tenure he planned and supervised several state assembly elections, and introduced many electoral reforms and introduced a voter education division and an expenditure monitoring division in the Election Commission. He has also authored a book titled ‘An Undocumented Wonder – the Making of the Great Indian Election’, that describes the enormity and complexity of Indian elections.

He also set up India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIDEM) and launched National Voters Day. A Haryana-cadre 1971 batch IAS officer, Quraishi held significant posts in the Haryana government as well as in the Union government. In 2016 he was awarded  Honorary Fellowship of the National Indian Students and Alumni Union, He spoke to VIJAY THAKUR on the future roadmap for the Election Commission and challenges to face elections in wake of COVID-19 pandemic. Excerpts:

Question

You have recently called for a ban on opinion polls. Why you are not in favour of Opinion Polls?

Answer

There is no issue if the Opinion Polls are honest. But in a situation where the credibility of media has gone down, you can buy editorial, you can buy news item. That is why all political parties had approached ECI, which we agreed and told them to make a law against opinion polls. After that Law Ministry sent us a draft for banning opinion and exit polls. The Election Commission vetted it. But surprisingly after a fortnight, we noticed that they only banned exit polls and left opinion polls. They demanded, we supported it, but when it came to making an act, they ignored it.

Why we are against Opinion Polls is the trend of paid news. In a situation where we are reporting hundreds of cases of paid news, we cannot rule out the ‘bogus’ opinion polls. And if a bogus opinion poll is projected it would influence public opinion and would affect the purity of the elections. So the banning of Opinion Polls is must for a free and fair election.

Question

To address the EVM apprehensions, the Election Commission has introduced VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail) machines. Now you suggested counting of votes from VVPAT slips instead of EVMs.

Answer

I was heading the CEC when VVPAT was introduced in 2010. When EVM controversy was quite high in 2010, we had an all-party meeting where all political parties agreed to VVPAT. In 2011 we pad dry run of the machine in five towns in different geographical regions, which encountered some errors and sent back for further improvement. A year later, another mock trial was run in the same towns which were successful. Finally, we decided to introduce it in some bye-elections. After its successful run, we finally ordered 20 lakh VVPAT machines and that’s why VVPAT machine was used in 2019 elections.

Despite all that some political parties are still questioning EVM and demanding voting through ballot papers. I suggested two models. First was that the winner and runner up may appeal two machines where they suspect something.

The second model was to do the reverse, instead of counting on EVMs, count on VVPAT machines. Actually counting of VVPAT and EVM machines take nearly 20 to 25 minutes. So instead of counting on EVM lets count VVPAT slips, both would take a similar time, but the confidence level would go up among the contesting candidates. Let's do it on a pilot basis in some constituency. Reversing the process, which means counting VVPAT slips would bring enhance and transparency and credibility to the electoral system.

Question

But by doing so, aren’t you actually advocating for a return to paper ballots?

Answer

Counting of ballot papers is a long process, it was a big paper sheet, opening it checking it and then counting takes a much longer time. Whereas VVPAT slip is a 3-inch slip and hardly takes much time. Counting through a VVPAT machine or through an EVM, both take almost the same time. So in the end there would not be much difference whether we count EVMS or VVPAT slips. I discussed it with some officials of the ECI and suggested these change in the process to increase the credibility of the electoral system.

 

Question

What are your views on the issue of electoral bonds?

I am strongly of the view that Electoral Bonds are undemocratic, have killed transparency, legitimised Crony Capitalism. The scheme introduced by the present government has apparently not only legalized the crony capitalism but also taken away transparency from political funding.

Earlier no company could donate more than 7.5% of their last three years profit unfortunately this limit has been taken away and now a company could donate almost 100% of their profits. Obviously, there is no free lunch. If a company is giving its huge profit, it would definitely expect something back and may influence the government’s decision in their favour.

So the introduction of Electoral bond is definitely a backward step, taken pretending to be a forward step. In the name of bringing transparency,  in fact, they killed transparency. Earlier all donations more than Rs 20,000 was to be brought in the knowledge of the Election Commission. Today even if the donation is of Rs 20 crore, election commission would not come to know the source of the funding.

Question

The EC recently conducted the Bihar Assembly polls successfully amid the Covid pandemic which continues to rage. There are some crucial state polls lined up for early next year. What is your take on elections in Covid times?

 

Answer

Election Commission has done excellent in Bihar assembly elections. It is for the first time that the Commission held four press conferences to bring more transparency. All the detailed guidelines and SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) were scientific, intelligent and based on global experience. We hope it would do the same in the coming elections. India’s Election Commission is always learning and improving itself. EC must have done post mortem of the Bihar assembly elections and I hope it would further improve its guidelines based on its Bihar experience.

Ends.