IS FEAR OF ECI NON-EXISTENT?
The second phase of polling on 23rd April, 2009 went off but not peacefully as claimed by the election commission. 13 of out all 40 constituency went to polls in the second phase was also marred by violence, incidents of booth capturing and mismanagement on the polling stations.
Naxalites again stroked in Bihar killing 5 security personnel including one Patrolling magistrate named sunil Kumar at Karpori nahar culvert in Deoria PS in Muzaffarpur district of vaishali constituency. The naxalistes had planted landmine in the said culvert which exploded as the vehicle carrying the polling personnel who were returning after the poll crossed the culvert, leaving all the personnel dead and the driver seriously injured.
The state had also witnessed large scale violence during the first phase of poll in which more than 19 persons lost their lives including BSF and state police personnel.
2nd Phase of polls also cannot be said to have passed off smoothly and as many as 287 persons including one sitting MLA have been reportedly arrested, whereas; as many as 27 polling stations went without a single vote casted due to poll boycott due to lack of development in the concerned areas.
From polling percentage also, this phase was not successful and only 44% of the voters could exercise their voting rights. Political and media pundits tag scorching heat as the main reason but the high voter’s turn out in states like naxalites infested Andhra (68%) insurgency infested Assam(62%) and Jharkhand(48%) falsify their claims. The reasons according to many experts are voter’s apathy, apprehension of violence, naxalite’s boycott call and mismanagement on the booths. In many cases polling could not start timely due to non or improper functioning of EVMs. The slow rate of casting of votes due to improper and inadequate training of polling personnel has also been one of the main reasons of low voting percentage in the state.
From security arrangement point of view, this election felt the absence of K.J.Rao, the ex advisor whose name had become synonymous with free and fair election in the previous election especially in Bihar. The situation is such that two phases of polls have passed and ECI (CEC and ECs) did not visit the state. Before both the phases, only Navin Chawla came and did the formalities of holding discussions with the senior police and civil officials. Many of complaints have either been dumped or not properly investigated. The body language of chawla has failed to instil a sense of fear amongst the senior bureaucrats which has resulted in poor and some time biased deployment of police forces including CPMF. Unlike K.J. Rao and previous ECs and CEC, Chawla or for that matter Gopalswamy and other EC did not visit interior areas so that sense of confidence is instilled in the voter, especially vulnerable voters. The theory of ‘Randomisation of CPMF’ for deployment of central Paramilitary forces developed by KJ Rao was also not put into practice. One senior police official admitted on condition of anonymity that the present police set up in the state police head quarters did not repeat this theory because Abhayanad as ADG rank officer was instrumental in this exercise in the previous elections. This acrimony and adoption of non professionalism have resulted in violence. Unfortunately this point has not been highlighted by majority of media.
The situation is such that reportedly in Motihari district about 5000 security personnel kept on waiting for poll duty whole day on the 23rd, the day of poll and they could not be sent to the booths. In the first phase also, the naxalites infested districts like Jammui, Nawadah, Gaya, Aurangabad, Jehandbad etc went without 100% both covering by Police personnel as instructed by ECI. In Gaya, the DGP himself admitted that Home guards were deployed which was clear cut violation of security norms, unfortunately this laxity resulted in tragic death of those home guard. All the arms and ammunitions too were looted from them by the naxalites. In Jammui which went to poll in the first phase also witness large scale violence but majority of CPMF were sitting idle due to non deployment in the booths.
The acrimony in the ECI on the eve of Elections too has manifested in poor show which resulted in the above situation to develop. If the above situation is allowed to go unchecked and un-rectified, the third phase of elections scheduled on 30th April, 2009 may witness more violence both in terms of numbers and intensity.
