Om Prakash Rawat took up office of chief election commissioner (CEC) of India after A.K. Joti demitted charge on January 21. Rawat, a retired IAS officer of the 1977 batch, became an election commissioner in August 2015, and, being the most senior EC, succeeded Joti as India’s 22nd CEC.
Rawat is known for his honesty and outspokenness. Even though he was against holding polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh on separate dates, he went with the decision of the commission after making his views clear.
He served as principal secretary to the BJP’s Madhya Pradesh chief minister Babulal Gaur in 2004, and yet was a favourite of the Congress for implementing the Forest Rights Act of the UPA government. Excerpts from an interview with THE WEEK at his New Motibagh residence, New Delhi:
What are your priorities as the new CEC?
Continuity is important for any such office. Whatever has been done by predecessors like [T.N.] Sheshan, [J.M.] Lyngdoh, M.S. Gill and Dr Nasim Zaidi are remembered by the people. The global standards created by the Election Commission of India should be maintained and given a boost. People should have full faith in the electoral system, and its transparency will be my topmost priority.
How has electioneering changed since you joined the IAS in 1977?
When there were no electronic voting machines (EVMs), musclemen used to stamp ballot papers in a short time and stuff them into ballot boxes. That has become impossible after the EVM. To register a vote in the EVM, you require a minimum of 20 seconds, so if you have to cast 1,000 votes, you will need five hours. And, five hours is enough time for security forces to respond.
Our country has not been able to curb tendencies of misusing office to earn illicit money, which is a big worry. Candidates who contest elections always look at the money being spent on elections as investment to get returns through the office they will occupy....
In UP and Bihar, where you have three lakh voters in a constituency, it is impossible to distribute money, but money is used in other ways—like paid news and social media—to influence voters. In small constituencies like Goa, Delhi and Manipur, people tend to give money because getting just 30,000 votes can help a person win the election. In Tamil Nadu, we caught Rs 89 crore meant for distribution in just once constituency. We countermanded the elections.
What is your take on EVMs, which have been questioned recently?
In the recently concluded Gujarat and Himachal polls, we made an arrangement, on a pilot basis, that in every constituency, a chit will be drawn to select a polling station for which the EVM count would be matched with voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips. It matched everywhere, proving that the EVM is neutral. This machine is a standalone unit. So much precaution has been taken by the commission that we do not even plug this machine into the power grid, it runs on battery power. So, no outside connection and no oscillatory circuit to interact with another machine. There is no way that anybody can tamper with it.
You recently disqualified a Madhya Pradesh minister from contesting on the charge of paid news. What is the situation like?
The ‘paid news’ scenario is changing. Earlier, we were not able to bring the cases to book. Now, awareness is increasing and our district- and state-level media monitoring and certification committees are very capable and active. That is why hundreds of cases of ‘paid news’ are being detected and notices are being issued to the candidates. Interestingly, most of them now accept it and include it in their expenses.
Are you in favour of legislating for compulsory voting?
In our country, compulsory voting is a little dicey due to poverty and other reasons. During implementation of the Forest Rights Act in Madhya Pradesh, I have seen that tribals were not ready to spare even a day of their daily wages to do the formalities of getting documents of their land rights, which the government has given them. If we make voting compulsory, it will have a very negative effect on such people, as they will be punished for not voting. Our society is not yet matured for such a decision. However, we have a programme to create awareness for voting called SVEEP (systematic voter education and electoral participation). This has helped achieve voting turnout of up to 90 per cent in many states.
Nearly 30 per cent of the electorate does not cast votes. Who do you think are not voting?
In most cases, they are migrant workers, as they cannot vote during elections. We have prepared a report on this and are working to address this issue.
Do you think that measures taken by the government to curb black money resulted in reduced use in the Gujarat elections?
There is no empirical research to establish that it has reduced. My feeling is that money is like Frankenstein’s [monster]. Wherever you increase the enforcement—like flying squads and static surveillance teams—it does not go there. It finds other ways and channels to get distributed.
There have been suggestions to hold the Lok Sabha and state polls simultaneous. Do you think it can happen soon?
It is possible only when you make all the necessary amendments to the Constitution, Representation of People Act and other relevant laws. However, those amendments have not yet been made, because you have to take all political parties on board. We have placed orders for 40 lakh machines. If we get them in time, and some additional machines, it would be possible logistically.
The whole process of amending these laws will require at least a year, so holding simultaneous polls is very difficult in the near future.
You will be conducting elections in eight states this year before retiring in December. Any new plans?
The most important thing I would like to do is to bring all the stakeholders on board to review the whole system of laws, rules and regulations to make these in line with the evolving times, technology and features of electoral politics, so that there is no space for aberrations to flourish.
