NEW DELHI: Dubbing Election Commission as a “choreographer” of elections than a facilitator, RSS on Saturday questioned its decisions on a variety of issues including the one to drape elephants , the election symbol of the ruling BSP in Uttar Pradesh ahead of assembly elections.
“Over the past two decades, the Election Commission has become the choreographer of elections, instead of being the facilitator…EC has taken the task of disciplining the democratic political process to absurd levels,” said Sangh mouthpiece ‘Organiser’ in the editorial of its latest issue.
Claiming that the poll panel has fixed election dates, “rather arbitrarily”, it said despite a request by Uttarakhand Chief Minister B C Khanduri to keep in mind the cold wave in the hill state, the Commission did not alter the schedule.
It also questioned the long poll schedule saying safe keep of EVMs before the counting date will be a difficult task. The journal said the decision to cover the statues of elephants at a considerable cost is “questionable”.
“As aptly pointed out by Mayawati, cycle is the poll symbol of the Samajwadi Party and hand is the symbol of the Congress. Are these being covered, she asked. By EC’s logic people should not be allowed to ride cycles and wave hands,” it said.
Maintaining that polls have become a “stiff bureaucratic exercise”, Sangh said it was unfortunate that the political parties are “suffering this metamorphosis in silence without attempting to stem the drift.”
It also raised concerns on the vulnerability of EVMs and claimed they can be hacked. (PTI)