Midweek Conversation—Debashis Sen—Chief Electoral Officer

Midweek Conversation—Debashis Sen—Chief Electoral Officer
He is the man who could keep his cool even when volleys of fiery words are hurled on him by leaders of Opposition over the issue of making the polling exercise in Bengal free and fair. He is the man who never loses his temper when the ruling party make sarcastic comments on heavy deployment of central police force to make the polling peaceful, and free from political graffiti’s. He is the man who can win hearts of millions of electorates simply with his concept of “Anandababu”. Just a day after the dates for the parliamentary poll is announced, chief electoral officer, Debashis Sen speaks to Santanu saraswati on preparation, deployment of forces, sensitive constituencies and political graffiti. Excerpts: -

There are still allegations and counter-allegations on preparation of electoral lists. Is Bengal really ready for the parliamentary polls?

--Right now our EVM training is going on under the state-level EVM master training programme. On Wednesday, we held a teleconference with all the block development officers, sub-divisional magistrates and district magistrates jointly in association with the experts from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) regarding the preparation and networking required during the polling days. The electoral lists have been published—with efforts made for making it error free and checking process of all the 73,000 factory-fresh EVMS from the Electronic Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), Hyderabad are presently going on to avoid last-minute trouble. We are making it best from our part to ensure better polling and making the process error-free, free and fair for all concerned with the process.

There are media reports that few political parties are still defacing walls, at least in the suburbs and district towns through painting political graffiti. How far you think the Election Commission will be successful in stopping this social nuisance this time?

--Graffiti of any kind in public buildings, educational institutions and hospitals is banned. It is allowed in private buildings with prior written permission of the owner of the premises and what’s more a copy of the acquiescence will have to be given to the local police station and the polling officer. With the letter of the Election Commission on the issue of model code of conduct published in newspapers on Tuesday, it has been categorically mentioned that the law of the land is applicable for every one—whether doer is a public figure or general public—it doesn’t matter. The EC has strictly directed the district magistrate to look into the issue, whether the act of defacement of the wall has prior permission of the owner of the building or not.

Last time, you were successful in keeping the issue of political graffiti and other things under control for free and fair polling in Bengal. But with the change in political scenario, do you think, the EC’s directives, in any way will be followed by ultra-Leftists organisations or the insurgent Maoist forces in rural Bengal?

--Whether any political party, any private organisation or any banned outfits have done the defacement—it doesn’t matter. There has been a clear-cut directive from the Election Commission that no one is above the law of the land. This is also a reference to the provisions of the existing law—West Bengal Prevention of Defacement Act 1976 and its revision by Amendment of the Panchayat & Municipal Act 2006—that strictly says the act of defacement would invite a fine of Rs 50,000 or an imprisonment of six-months or both. And every single person, who is an Indian citizen, comes under the purview of this law. Even the governments are serious about the implementation of this law.

There has been an additional deployment of forces and army officials along the borders after the 26/11. Do you think it would be possible to manage the polls in the same way you did it in 2006?

--The ideal situation or utopia doesn’t happen in our real life. Like every states, West Bengal, too, would need additional deployment of Central Police Force, during the days of elections. But keeping in view of the recent development in Mumbai and the relationship with our neighbouring countries, it would not be possible for the government to provide same number of CPF, as it was in 2006 Assembly polls. But for making the polling exercise little innovative, for the first time there will be micro-observers will be there in all the 42 parliamentary constituencies in West Bengal. There will be central observers, who will be IAS or equivalent officers, coming from outside the state. These central observers will appoint efficient central government officials as micro-observers who would be visiting selected polling stations on the day of the polling and would report to the central observers to make the process—free, transparent, and fair.

Bula-di is a flop show. So is it becoming difficult for people getting hold of your—Anandababu—for solving the problems of the common electorates. Don’t you think that it is another flop-show at the expense of the government exchequer?

--I do admit that it is becoming little difficult for the common electorates to get hold of Anandababu. Only last week, there were 35,000 calls received by us and because of manpower problem, we could solve only 4,000. One would be surprised to know that the whole concept was conceptualised by me in the benefit of the millions of state electorates and unlikely Bula-di, nothing at the cost of government exchequer. An NGO—Prantakatha—is working for us absolutely free from 11 am to 4 pm. And we didn’t claim it as 24x7 helpline for voters. This is in connection with the ECD directives calling all registered voters to participate in the election process and exercise their constitutional right. We believe that wider voter participation will make the democracy more vibrant and deepen its roots more strongly. The EC has directed the CEOs to take certain voter-friendly initiatives, like helpline—like Anandababu, voter assistance booths near polling stations, web-based search facilities to locate names in the voters’ list and so on. We assure, it would be another transparent voting process in Bengal—just like 2006.

EOM
santanu_saraswati@hotmail.com