Chandigarh: Launching a scathing attack on the BJP-led Union Government, Punjab Industries and Commerce Minister and AAP state president Mr. Aman Arora on Friday said that India’s electoral democracy is facing its “gravest institutional crisis” in decades, warning that the Election Commission of India (ECI) has been systematically stripped of its autonomy and the country is being pushed towards an “elected dictatorship.”
While participating in the discussion on a crucial resolution seeking constitutional safeguards to protect the voting rights of eligible citizens, Mr. Aman Arora paid tributes to Punjab’s freedom fighters and revolutionaries who laid down their lives for the country’s independence and for the right to vote. Recalling Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s vision of equality at the ballot box, he asserted that the right to vote is not a privilege but the very foundation of democratic citizenship.
Aman Arora said the crisis was not about any individual Election Commissioner but was structural in nature. He pointed out that two Election Commissioners had raised objections about not being heard and their dissent being repeatedly ignored. Flagging lingering questions over EVMs and the functioning of the ECI, he said the nationwide protests by youth reflected a deepening public distrust in the electoral process.
He also referred to earlier political attempts to reshape the ECI, including the move from a single-member to a three-member Commission, and said institutions like the ECI must not only be independent but must also appear to be independent.
