*The attitude of the Election Commission and the Police Department: An analysis*
At the time of election, the Election Commission has full authority in the state concerned. It means that in order to maintain law and order and to keep the election and the state safe from all kinds of irregularities, the Election Commission can ask the DIG to enforce as much as it wants through the police department but what is the reason that the Election Commission remains a silent spectator in many matters or it adopts an attitude which benefits the Ruling Party and harms the Opposition? I am not saying this with my mind but now we are seeing all this with our own eyes in the Uttar Pradesh elections. On the one hand, there is a police patrol at the Samajwadi Party office in Lucknow and there the police are dealing with the Samajwadi Party leaders and workers with great severity, but on the other hand, BJP leaders are holding large rallies at various places in UP; Instead of taking legal action against the BJP leaders, the police are protecting the BJP rallies there. Obviously, in view of the election situation, the Election Commission is in control there, so the Election Commission can take appropriate action against the BJP leaders and workers who break the law by asking the DIG, but so far no such action has been taken by the Election Commission. If Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra does not take further legal action against these errant BJP leaders and workers, then the allegation of Samajwadi Party National President Akhilesh Yadav that the Election Commission is operating secretly in UP will be proved true.
The big question here is why the Election Commission, despite being a completely independent and autonomous body, is not able to carry out its work strictly. In fact, there are a number of theoretical complications. Of course the Election Commission is an independent and autonomous body but obviously it usually relies on the state police to handle the circumstance and maintain law and order, And the problem with the police department is that if the police department takes strong action against the political parties at the time of election today, then after the election, when these parties win and sit on the seat of power, these political parties misbehave against the police officers who fulfilled their duties with utmost honesty at the time of elections. This is a problem that has tied the hands of many honest police officers; And in view of this problem, the Election Commission has been demanding for a long time that after the election is over, the matters of the police department should be handled for the next six months by the Election Commission; So that the police officers do their job with full courage and enthusiasm during the election and after the election, if there is any problem with these police officers in the relevant places, then the Election Commission will transfer them to other places at its own discretion; But this demand of the Election Commission has not been met so far and considering the aggressive attitude of the political parties, there is no hope that this demand will be met in the near future.
Here you can say that when there are many problems with the local police then why the Election Commission does not deploy paramilitary forces? The answer is that paramilitary forces are also deployed on the eve of elections, but in the case of paramilitary forces there is a great difficulty in number, ie the Election Commission does not get paramilitary forces in such numbers that they can only work through paramilitary forces. Therefore, the use of local police in such a situation becomes very important.
When it comes to deploying paramilitary forces instead of local police, let us say that on many occasions even the political parties themselves demand from the Election Commission to use paramilitary forces instead of local police. Therefore, in the Bihar elections of 2010, Nitish Kumar had demanded from the Election Commission that paramilitary forces should be deployed instead of local police during the elections. How strange that even though he was the Chief Minister of the state, he did not trust his police. The point is, although the police department has many difficulties, it should not neglect its duties, as its neglect is undermining its credibility with the public; And beyond the police department, if we talk about the Election Commission, then obviously the Election Commission of India (ECI) is a self-governing constitutional body which oversees the election process in India as per the Constitution of India, so it should rise above all kinds of ups and downs and fulfill its duty, so that the democratic values of the country are preserved along with the identity of the commission.
*Mizanur Rahman Alayee*
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