Centre must refrain from interfering with ECI affairs: Vinod Kumar
Hyderabad: Telangana State Planning Board vice-chairman B Vinod Kumar accused the Narendra Modi government of trying to weaken the autonomy of Election Commission of India (ECI) and influence the latter. He strongly objected to an alleged secret meeting of top officials of the Prime Minister’s Office with the ECI recently and stated that such actions […]
Hyderabad: Telangana State Planning Board vice-chairman B Vinod Kumar accused the Narendra Modi government of trying to weaken the autonomy of Election Commission of India (ECI) and influence the latter. He strongly objected to an alleged secret meeting of top officials of the Prime Minister’s Office with the ECI recently and stated that such actions would demean the democratic set up of this country.
In a statement issued here on Saturday, Vinod Kumar reminded that the ECI has a good reputation across the world and on many occasion, the international community praised the work done by the Commission for conducting elections in a democratic and transparent manner. He expressed concern that it would be disruptive to democracy to see the Narendra Modi government at the Centre keeping the ECI under its control.
“It was not in the best interest of the Centre or the country to influence the Commission. Such actions by the Centre should be strongly opposed by all. The Centre must take its responsibility seriously and ensure that the ECI functions independently,” he asserted.
The State Planning Board vice-chairman warned the Union government to refrain from interfering with the work of the ECI or face people’s wrath across the nation. For the past 20 years, he said he had been representing the TRS in meetings organised by the ECI with leaders of various political parties. He suggested that the BJP leaders also could attend these meeting to take up their grievances with the EC, rather than convening such secret meetings.
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