Former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa has said the poll panel being mired in controversies was unprecedented. Lavasa advised the poll panel regain public trust, drawing a cricket analogy to warn that a team’s victory would be questioned “if people feel the umpire was not neutral”.
The remarks come amid a united protests by opposition INDIA bloc over the past few days against alleged ‘vote chori’ and demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The protsts came after an Indian Express report said Election Commissioners and Vivek Joshi had objected on record at least 14 times over the last 10 months to decisions and orders they said were issued without their knowledge, even as the national rollout of the SIR was under the supervision of the full commission.
“I feel this is very unfortunate and dangerous for democracy, because you need an umpire in an electoral democracy,” Lavasa said addressing a citizens’ convention in Kolkata virtually on 13 October.
“If people feel that the umpire is not neutral, they will question the winning team’s victory as well,” the former election commissioner said.
“The EC should regain its credibility and people’s trust. The , whose position is very high and possibly the highest among all public institutions, is today mired in controversies and people are taking to the streets to protest,” he said.
Under fire over the red flags raised by two of its commissioners over the SIR process, the EC has asserted that differing views and observations are a normal part of deliberations in any institution and all its orders carry full legal sanction and follow established statutory procedures.
In a statement, the poll panel also said that not only the three commissioners, but every officer of the EC is fully authorised to give suggestions to the commission to improve the electoral system.
Pointing to the controversy over the SIR of electoral rolls, Lavasa said the people of the country have never been so worried about saving their voting rights as they have been in the last 16 months. “The EC’s decision to conduct the SIR took everyone by surprise,” he asserted.
Ashok Lavasa is a retired (IAS) officer who served as an Election Commissioner of India from January 2018 to August 2020.
Lavasa is best known for recording a dissent during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections over the Election Commission’s decisions on alleged Model Code of Conduct violations by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah.
Born on 21 October, 1957, Lavasa a 1980 batch IAS officer from Haryana cadre, who superannuated on 31 October, 2017 as. During 37 years of his long active service he held various crucial positions in state government of Haryana and in the Central Government.
Lavasa served in key positions as Principal Secretary and Financial Commissioner (Renewable Energy Sources, Power), Chief Coordinator (Industries), Resident Commissioner of Haryana, Managing Director of Haryana State Federation of Co-operative Sugar Hills (HSFCOSHL), Director of Haryana State Industrial Development Cooperation (HSIDC), Union Finance Secretary, Union Environment, Forests and Climate Change Secretary, Union Civil Aviation Secretary, Special Secretary in the , Joint Secretary in the M/o Home Affairs and several other important positions.
During his tenure Elections to Legislative Assemblies of almost 28 states were held. Besides Lok Sabha Elections 2019 were also held during his tenure as Election Commissioner.
In 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Lavasa was in the middle of a row when he dissented from decisions giving PM Modi and Amit Shah a clean chit in complaints alleging violations of the Model Code of Conduct during poll campaign. Lavasa’s dissent drew attention to questions about the Election Commission’s handling of complaints against senior political leaders.
Lavasa resigned as in August 2020 after being appointed vice-president of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), where he oversaw private-sector operations and public-private partnerships. His ADB tenure ran from 2020 to 2023.
