Bharat Bhushan: The neutralisation of Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa
It is highly unusual
for someone holding a constitutional position to be offered a lucrative posting
by the very Executive he is supposed to be independent of. Yet, Election
Commissioner Ashok Lavasa has been nominated by the government as a Vice
President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and he has accepted the offer –
he had two more years left in his constitutional role. Prima facie, both the
government’s recommendation and Lavasa’s acceptance are damaging to Indian
democracy. Lavasa will now be out of the succession for the post of Chief
Election Commissioner falling vacant in April 2021.
In
the run up to the 2019 general election, Lavasa had opposed the clean chit given
by the EC to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for
violating the Model Code of Conduct. He did this not once, but five times, and
when his dissent was not recorded, he refused to attend the EC’s meetings. It
earned him the wrath of powerful political figures who won a massive mandate.
After they assumed
power, Lavasa’s family was apparently ‘punished’ for his ‘intransigence’. His
wife received income-tax notices. The Enforcement Directorate targeted a
company in which his son was a director, for alleged violations of foreign
exchange laws. His sister was hauled up for alleged stamp duty evasion.
In an anguished
December 2019 op-ed in The Indian Express, Lavasa had lamented his
isolation: “It is naïve to expect those that have been opposed by the honest to
meekly accept the ascendance of the meek. They strike back and the price for
the honest could be in the form of lonely suffering, even noticeable
isolation.”…
https://www.thequint.com/
The Supreme Court, Gandhi and the RSS
The Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi: Inquiry Commission Report (1969)
TheAbolition of truth
The Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi: Inquiry Commission Report (1969)
TheAbolition of truth
