The reporters collective’s report on election commission sharing electoral roll data with then Telangana government, is a serious violation of law and established practice It violates the privacy of the voters and integrity of electoral data.
But far more damning, it is for the already fallen credibility of the chief election commissioner Mr Gyanesh Kumar. The two press conferences by Mr Rahul Gandhi have severely dented his image and the rebuttals he has made have aggravated it further.
His obstinacy in face of criticism and obvious deprivation by the special intensive revision of the electoral roll or SIR in poll bound Bihar has further undermined it.
Much of it is due to the inexplicable firewalling of all information and data. Mr Gandhi alleged that he has blocked crucial data, which is of evidence value, in Aland remote voter deletion case, denying machine readable voter lists for scrutiny and videography footage of polling stations for identification of voters.
The strangest part being his alibi, of protecting the privacy of female voters. It was rightly questioned, then, that if the data could not be used even in face of grave allegation of election fraud, then why were the cameras installed at all.
Today the reporters collective, quoted the rti reply to a privacy activist Mr Kodali, that the ECI had shared epic pictures with the then Telangana government for a biometric authentication system, involving welfare scheme entitlement.
The epic pictures were to be used as the base data for facial identification. Further details show that the data was worked on by private companies. The entire narrative of data integrity and women privacy stand demolished.
Secure behind the legal immunity provided by the 2023 election commission protection act, he may not face criminal prosecution, but the loss of credibility, being caught blatantly lying will harm the institutional sanctity and thereby the entire democratic structure of the country.
