Author: Bhupendra Chaubey
Publication: IBNLive.com
Date: February 11, 2008
URL: http://www.ibnlive.com/news/belgian-award-for-sonia-puts-ec-in-a-spot/58695-3.html?xml
The Chief Election Commissioner, N Gopalaswamy
and his two fellow Election Commissioners - Navin Chawla and Dr S Y Quraishi
- is the troika responsible for maintaining the spirit of unity and democracy
in India.
However, at present, they are finding it difficult
to maintain the spirit of unity amongst themselves.
CNN-IBN has learnt that there is an intense
battle on within the EC over whether Congress President, Sonia Gandhi, should
be served a notice for accepting an award from the Belgian government in November
2006.
The Order of Leopold - which is the second
highest civilian award in Belgium - was conferred on Sonia Gandhi for helping
in building a more tolerant society. The catch was though that she had to
sign her allegiance to Belgium.
An individual complaint to former president,
Dr APJ Abdul Kalam ended up getting forwarded to the Election Commission.
That is when the trouble began. A series of
meetings led to no result. Finally, at a confidential meeting last week, the
Chief Election Commissioner asked his two deputies as to why a notice should
not be served on Sonia.
While one Election Commissioner is believed
to have adopted a cautious approach, another felt that the issue was too frivolous,
giving weight to his contention was the fact this was an award which had been
given to international political heavy weights such as former US President
Eisenhower and legendary Yugoslav leader Joseph Tito.
But this is not the first time that a massive
disagreement is being seen in the Election Commission.
In fact, ever since Navin Chawla took over
as the Election Commissioner, there have been several instances where the
Chief Election Commissioner and Chawla have not seen eye-to-eye with each
other - whether it's issuing a notice to Sonia Gandhi or deciding when Karnataka
elections should be held.
BJP Spokesperson, Ravi Shankar Prasad says,
"The Election Commission is an autonomous body and is fully empowered
to take any action."
However, Congress Spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi
says that the argument is ridiculous.
Over the last one year, the BJP has questioned
Navin Chawla's neutrality on many occasions. The latest spat will give more
ammunition to the BJP's campaign against the Election Commissioner.
