Sir— Apropos Prime Minister Narendra Modi's assertion in Gujarat this past Sunday that the Opposition parties have no authority to question
the Election Commission of India (ECI) over announcement of the poll schedule, this writer-advocate, as a citizen of India, would like to humbly dissent from his point of view.
Not only the Opposition parties, but rather every Indian citizen can validly question any act of commission or omission of the EC if it seems to be questionable.
When, contrary to expectation regarding a collective announcement of schedule for elections to State Assemblies of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, the ECI on October 12
announced the poll schedule for HP only it was obvious that eyebrows would be raised. Everyone is wondering what really prevented the ECI from announcing the poll dates for the Gujarat election along with HP's election schedule. It may have had valid reasons for doing so but then those must be shared with the public.
The term of current Assemblies for the States of HP and Gujarat are expiring in the same month with the former on January 7, 2018 and latter on January 22, 2018.
So merely a time gap of 15 days by no means warrants any sort of delay, prima facie,
between the announcements of the election schedule for the two poll-bound States more particularly as the ECI itself reportedly asserted that the poll for Gujarat would also be held before December 18.
In the absence of any statement from the Election Commission, there is a growing perception in civil society that perhaps the ECI withheld its announcement for Gujarat poll dates till the conclusion of all of Prime Minister Modi's official visits to the State.
I sincerely hope that the Election Commission would never allow the ruling elite at the Centre regardless of which party is ruling to dictate terms to a Constitutional body.