Samata Party assails EC
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Aug 21 — Yet another partner of the National Democratic Alliance, the Samata Party, today joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in criticising the Election Commission for its discriminatory attitude.

Samata Party general secretary, Jaya Jaitley said the Election Commission was singling out some political parties and individual candidates for imposing restrictions on their campaigning but was turning a blind eye on the administrative aspect of conducting free and fair elections.

She also termed the decision of the former Chief Election Commissioner, Mr T.N.Seshan, to contest election for the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency in Gujarat under the Congress ticket as "unfortunate" saying that this precedent could raise a question mark on the fair functioning of the constitutional authority.

Ms Jaitley was of the opinion that Mr Seshan should have contested as an Independent candidate and he should not have been associated with any political party. The Samata Party is in full agreement with the Lok Shakti that Mr Seshan had set a wrong precedent, she added. This would mean that Election Commissioners stand the risk of being lured by political parties with election tickets, she added.

Taking exception to the EC’s directive to the ruling combination to desist from making the Kargil conflict an election issue, Ms Jaitley said this would put them at a disadvantage as they would not be able to counter the charges of the Opposition on the Kargil conflict.

Referring to the Congress poster eulogising the role of the Bofors gun in the Kargil conflict and the hand of Rajiv Gandhi in procuring them, Ms Jaitley said how could the ruling side not counter this propaganda. The Congress was trying to wash the truth behind the Bofors commission deal with the blood of the jawans.

She said the EC had also singled out the Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, from making an issue out of the Kargil conflict and had dragged the Defence Ministry into the controversy. She clarified that the Defence Ministry had no role in making a documentary on the Kargil war and it was the Information and Broadcasting Ministry’s baby.

The EC by dragging the Defence Ministry into the picture had projected the Defence Minister as misusing his official position and this was not right. Mr Fernandes was a politician and as an individual had every right to claim the success of his leadership before the people, she added.

She indicated that her party would continue to talk about the Kargil conflict as long as the Opposition made an issue out of it.

Charging the EC of failing to ensure a level playing field vis a vis the bureaucracy, the Samata Party spokesperson cited the case of Bihar malpractices where more than 1000 duplicate ballot boxes had been recovered. Despite the Samata Party and the BJP making a representation to the EC, the commission had not launched any serious inquiry on the issue.

The EC had entrusted the Chief Election Commission to submit a report and the CEC in return had entrusted the responsibility to the same returning officers who were guilty of the malpractice, she said. Also, the Comptroller and Auditor-General in its report had pointed out that the deposit money collected from candidates in 12 constituencies of Bihar in the last general election in 1998 had not been deposited with the treasury, she said. The EC should take action on this report, she added.

She felt the electorate was more bothered about the conduct of free and fair elections and the right treatment of their votes and the EC should concentrate on this aspect of the elections.

Ms Jaitley also clarified that the Samata Party had no plans to strike an alliance with the Samajwadi Party in Rajasthan. She said Mr Gopal Pacherwal had been appointed president of the Rajasthan unit of the Samata Party.

On the Janata Dal (Secular) party’s demand to the EC to treat the Janata Dal (United) as a single entity and thus bar the separate slots given to the Samata and the Lok Shakti parties in the television schedule for campaigning, Ms Jaitley clarified that the three parties had not merged and they continued to maintain their individual status. The three parties had only agreed to contest under the common "arrow" symbol of the JD (U) and the formal merger would be taken up only after the elections, she said.