Poetic CEC Rajiv Kumar drills holes in Opposition’s allegations

New Delhi: A month before his retirement, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar was at his poetic best while announcing the election schedule for Delhi Assembly on Tuesday.

In his own inimitable style, the CEC took jibes at those who doubted the integrity of the poll panel, responding to allegations of bias and also indicating that his tenure is coming to an end soon.

“Sab swaal ahmiyat rakhtein hai, jawab to banta hai; aadatan kalam bandh jawab dete rahe, aaj ruh baruh bhi banta hai; kya pata kal hum hon na hon, aaj jawab toh banta hai (I am willing to respond to all your queries in person today as you never know I would be there to do so tomorrow),” said CEC Rajiv Kumar, while clarifying doubts related to alleged manipulation of EVMs.

A little later he came up with another poetic gem to send a strong message to those who doubt the transparency and fair play by the ECI. “Aaropon or iljimat ka daur chale, koi gila nahin; jhooth ke gubbaron ko bulandi mile, koi shikwa nahin; har parinam mein parman dete hain, par woh bina saboot shak ki nayi dunia raunak karte hain aur shak ka ilaaj toh hakim Turkman ke pas bhi nahin (I have no regrets if you make accusations against me or float balloons of lies and am willing to give evidence for every result. But you raise fresh doubts on each occasion and there is no remedy for this with even the most qualified mind).”

In his parting shot before taking a break from the rigors of a bureaucratic career, detoxing in the Himalayas and working for underprivileged students, the CEC said, “I want to go back to my roots and devote myself to charity. I wish God will help me achieve this.”

In what appeared to be his last electoral outing, the CEC also gave two suggestions for possible reforms of the electoral process.

He said there is a need to involve the 30 crore missing voters in the electoral process, adding that the nation needs to debate if remote voting, trials for which have already been conducted, could be a solution for involving those who are unable to vote.

On the issue of protecting the identity of voters at each polling booth, which is still not fool-proof due to non-mixing of EVMS, he suggested that one way of tackling the issue could be the use of a “totalizer” through which a total of votes from all EVMs could be arrived at the end of each round of counting, masking voting details related to individual EVM or booths.