EAS Sarma — restoring the credibility of the Election Commission

E A S Sarma

Former Secretary to the Government of India

To

Shri Gyanesh Kumar

Chief Election Commissioner

Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu

Election Commissioner

Dr Vivek Joshi

Election Commissioner

Dear S/Shri Gyanesh Kumar, Sandhu and Joshi,

I am glad that the new team of Election Commissioners are trying to restore the trust of political parties and the public at large to enhance the overall credibility of the Commission (https://www.aninews.in/news/national/general-news/cec-gyanesh-kumar-takes-swift-and-decisive-action-to-resolve-decades-old-electoral-issues20250316181017/).

Such a response from the Commission is long overdue.

In this connection, I draw your attention to a letter I had written to your predecessor team of Election Commissioners on 2nd June, 2024, appealing to them one last time to attend to several public concerns on the Commission’s role and its reluctance to invoke its full authority, as it ought to have, from the reservoir of power that Article 324 of the Constitution confers on it, to be able to conduct elections in a free and fair manner (https://countercurrents.org/2024/06/questions-posed-on-behalf-of-the-people-to-election-commission-of-india-to-provide-answers/)

For your ready reference, I have extracted below web links to the series of letters I hand written to your predecessors, which unfortunately elicited no response whatsoever.

I hope that you and the new team of Election Commissioners take a look at the concerns raised by me and act in a manner that invokes public trust in regard to the Commission’s willingness to act independently.

There have been concerns expressed by several civil society bodies and political parties on possible manipulation of the Electoral Rolls (https://youtu.be/Sa1FxRDXA8U), which raise questions of the Commission’s role in addressing such issues. I hope that you will verify, though belatedly, the factual information provided in the Youtube link to arrive at the truth.

In addition, the West Bengal Chief Minister has pointed out the existence of duplicate voter ID cards. I understand that the Commission is presently in the process of assessing the magnitude of the problem and taking necessary action (https://www.deccanherald.com/india/cec-gyanesh-kumar-calls-for-meeting-to-discuss-voter-id-aadhaar-linking-with-home-legislative-secretaries-3447738)

In this connection, I wish to point out that there is a huge number of ghost Aadhar cards floating around and one has to be wary about the reliability of linking Aadhar identity to voter ID cards. I invite your attention in this regard to an excellent analysis attempted by Shri R N Bhaskar (https://bhaskarr.substack.com/p/elections-are-over-now-what-about?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1402735&post_id=145660629&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=5tcop&triedRedirect=true) on the possible existence of ghost Aadhar cards for the Commission to appreciate that depending exclusively on Aadhar identity to verify duplicate voter ID may lead to erroneous conclusions.

May I appeal to the Election Commission once again to address the public concerns in a forthright manner to restore its eroded public credibility?

All the best,

Yourssincerely,

E A S Sarma

Visakhapatnam

17th March 2025