Media Comments 8.2.2012 - Election Commission of India

Election Commission of India
_N_A_M_E_O_F _TH_E_N_E_w_S_P_A_PE_R M_A_I_L_T_O_D_A_Y D_A_T_E_:__ - 8..IEB 201Z
/ ECin denial
THEElection Commls- __ -"""""~_
slon, headed by S.Y.
Quralshl, Is fighting
hard to deny that the
now-deferred redeployment
of IASOfficer
Pawan Kumar
Saln, a poll observer,
had anything to do
with his taking on
Robert Vadra In CSM Nagar, Uttar
Pradesh,on Monday.
The poll panel says the declslon to
move Saln as the district election officer
of SouthGoahadbeen Inthe works
fora week.
The Election Commission has now
named Daulat Havaldarasthe new district
collector of South Goawhile Saln
will stay on In Uttar Pradesh till the
assemblypolls are over.
1

,~,
..':' Election Commission of India
NAME OF THE NEWSPAPER PIONEER DATE: ~ 8 FEB Z01Z
/,
EC crackdown on IAS officer
who stopped Vadra stokes row
VIVEK VIKRAM SINGH/PNS •
LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI
he abrupt transfer of a poll
Tobserver, who stopped a
motor9'cle rally of Priyanka
Gandhis husband Robert Vadra
on the charge of violating the
model code of conduct, has
triggered a major controversy.
Chief Election
Commissioner SY
Quraishi, however,
claimed the transfer of
Pawan Sen, !AS officer of I..•••.Ulilt••d~~'common people:
2005 batch, was not linked • The message that
to the incident. As the has gone is that the
Opposition slammed the trans- EC has punished the
fer,the EC put the order on hold official for taking action against
till February 19 when Amethi a member of the special family"
goes to polls in the third phase BJP spokesman Syed Shahnawaz
of election in Uttar Pradesh. Hussain told the media without
The BJP reacted strongly to naming Robert Vadra.
the development and said it was He insisted that though the
worried about the negative mes- EC had cleared the air, the message
that had gone to the pub- sage had not reached the people.
lie with the transfer of the offi- Hussain said Congress workers
cer. "Law is equal for every cit- had threatened to "teach a lesson"
izen. It cannot be changed for to the officer and his transfer has
'special people' who talk about created an impression that he
was taught a lesson.
Vadra was stopped by the J
authorities while heading
towards Salon area of the district
for using more vehicles
than the permitted number of
10 bikes, District Magistrate JP
Gupta said. Sen had also
ordered filing of an FIR against
the local Congress candidate in
the Assembly poll. But so far so
far only notice has been issued
to Vadra and no FIR lodged.
Sen was taking a round on
Monday when he saw a motorcycle
rally being taken out in the
Salon Assembly constituency ..
The rally,comprising more than
one 100 motorcycles was led by
Vadra and none of the riders,
including him, were wearing
helmets. The Salon Assembly
constituency falls under CMS
Nagar district is a segment of
Amethi Lok Sabha seat.
Continued on Page 4
See Edit: One
flip-flop too many -
Election Commission's
credibility is brui~
C crackdown on IAS
officer who' stopped ...
From Page 1
When Sen asked the rallyists if they had sought permission
to take out the motorcycle rally, the answer was in the negative.
The election observer subsequently recommended that an FIR
for violation of model code be lodged against the Congress candidate
for whom Vadra.was campaigning.
Soon after the incident came the news of Pawan Kumar Sen's
transfer. The transfer of poll observer is a very exceptional case.
When The Pioneer asked the Superintendent of Police of CMS
Nagar, Vijay Singh Meena, about the incident, he said no FIR
was lodged in the incident. Quraishi said, "Today's incident is
unrelated to the observer's transfer. He said the Election
Commission had during its meeting on Tuesday morning decided
that Sen be posted as Deputy Commissioner in South Goa,
after complaints from various political parties about the conduct
of the present DC in South Goa who was earlier the state chief
minister's Principal Secretary".
"We had decided to seek a panel from the state government
and among the panel was Sen's name - the other two being
Secretaries to the chief minister and Governor.
"The EC in its meeting fmalised his (Sen's) name in the morning
today. The incident in which Robert Vadra was involved happened
in the evening and had nothing to do with Sen's transfer.
Even the recommendation of FIR done by him was against
the Congress candidate and not Vadra," Quraishi said.
"To avoid misinterpretation by some mischievous people, we
have since kept on hold his transfer. He will be relieved from his
election observer only after the polls are over on February
19", he added.

Election Commission of India
NAME OF THE NEWSPAPER DATE: 8 FEB 20fZ!

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Election Commission of India
~N~A~M~E~O~F ~TH~E~N~E~W~S::PA~P~E~R ~P:....:I~O=...:...:N:..:E:.:E:..:R-=- D_A_T_E_: t::::-L: S-WUOl1-'-2-
One flip-flop too many
Election Commission's credibility is bruised
B y
first ordering the transfer of an election
observer in Uttar Pradesh who had
the 'temerity' to stop Mr Robert Vadra's
motorcycle rally in Amethi, then postponing
his move to Goa till after the election, and
finally rescinding the order, all in a matter of
24 hours, the Election Commission of India
is now faced with a serious crisis of credibility.
Just as nobody is now convinced by the
Election Commission's tortuous justification
for its latest flip-flop, few had bought its earlier
explanation that IAS officer Pawan
Kumar Sain's transfer was a 'routine decision'
in the first place. Mr Sain had stopped Mr
Vadra's cavalcade on Monday evening when it was on its way to the Salon
area for using more than the permitted 10 vehicles. By the end of the day,
the Election Commission had issued him marching orders. It is simply too
much of a coincidence that such a 'routine' transfer should have come on
the heels of the official's stern action. After all, Mr Vadra is not an ordinary
political campaigner; he is the son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Indeed, had it not been for the media outcry over Mr Sain's so-called 'routine'
transfer, he would have by now been on his way to Goa. Under attack
for being 'biased: a red-faced Election Commission first engaged in a damage
control exercise by postponing Mr Sains transfer till after Amethi went
to the polls on February 19. But given how proactive the Election Commission
has been in getting Mr Sain out of Uttar Pradesh, this tactic was hardly convincing.
Consequently, the transfer order had to be scrapped to stem the
tide of criticism. On his part, Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi
has explained that the decision to transfer Mr Sain to Goa was taken because
the latter belongs to the State cadre. He added that Mr Sain's transfer was
delayed specifically "to avoid misinterpretation by some mischievous people':
But that does not answer the question as to why did it transfer Mr Sain
at all? Besides, doesn't his transfer fly in the face of a previous directive that
only female officers would be sent to Goa because men posted in that State
treat their assignment like a paid vacation?
This is not first time that the Election Commission has courted controversy
in the ongoing election. For instance, its decision to cover all statues
of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and those of her party symbol,
the elephant, to prevent voters' from getting influenced in favour of the
BSP, has been widely ridiculed. The Election Commission has also largely
ignored Union Minister for Law Salman Khurshid's announcement at an
election rally - in violation of the existing code of conduct - that the
Congress would create a nine per cent sub-quota for Musli s within the
27 per cent OBC reservation. That's a pity and a shame.

Election Commission of India
NAME OF THE NEWSPAPER THE ECONOMIC TIMES DATE:
----_ _ .
C Transfer in the Name of Fair Poll
Order against observer who stopped Vadra's motorcade scrapped following uproar
OUR POLITICAL BUREAU
NEW DELHI
Public outrage on Tuesday forced the
Election Commission to roll back its order
transferring out UP poll observer Pawan
Kumar Sain, who had on Monday
stopped a motorcycle rally by Sonia Gandhi's
son-in-law Robert Vadra in Amethi
for flouting EC norms. EC's action
against the officer, many felt, had marred
the non-partisan reputation of the panel.
The EC had shifted out Sa in, a Goa cadre
IAS officer of the 2005 batch, as the district
election officer of South Goa, hours
after he took action against Vadra.
Chief Election Commission SYQuraishi
was at pains to deny that the transfer of
Sain was in any way linked to his stopping
Vadra's motorcycle convoy in Amethi on
Monday for packing in more vehicles than
the prescribed limit of 10bikes. "To avoid
misinterpretation by some. mischievous
people, we have since kept his (Sam's)
transfer on hold. He will be relieved from
his election observer duty (in UP) only after
the polls are over on February 19," the
CE w uotedas .
NO STOPPING: RobertVad •.•
However, according to sources in EC,
the transfer orders were withdrawn after
it was pointedoutto the Commission that
poll observer Sain could not be penalised
for duly discharging his duties as a poll
bserver." e will now com lete is
signment in UP until polling in the concerned
constituencies on February 19
and then join back his current post as additional
secretary in Goa," a senior EC official
told ET.
Earlier in the day, an EC release tried to
brush aside the controversy linking the
poll observer's transfer to the crackdown
on Vadra's convoy in Amethi.
"The decision to post Sain as the DEO in
South Goa was in process for a week,
based on the need to replace the present
DEO in thatdistricL.Sain was found most
suitable for the post and his appointment
was accordingly ordered by the Commission
well before the incident in CSM Nagar
district took place," EC clarified.
Quraishi insisted that Sain was being
transferred as DEO of South Goa in the
interest of free and fair polls. He reportedly
said a poll panel team had visited
Goa last week and received complaints
that the South Goa Collector may not be
neutral. "The only other IAS officer available
to us (to replace the South Goa collector)
is Sen. So, we decided that since we
have so many observers in UP, we can use
anoth b "C C aid
;- 8 FEB 2012
~~

Election Commission of India
NAME OF THE NEWSPAPER THE ASIAN AGE DATE:
AGE CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI, FEB. 7
The EC on Tuesday
strongly refuted reports
that Pawan Kumar Sain,
a district electoral officer
(DEO) in Uttar Pradesh,
was transferred to Goa,
since rescinded, for having
stopped the convoy of
Mr Robert Vadra, son-inlaw
of Congress president
Sonia Gandhi.
The EC had transferred
him on Monday as the district
collector of South
Goa, then put it on hold
till the completion ofpolls
·inAmethi and finally cancelled
the order and
replaced him with Daulat
A. Havaldar.
Chief Election
Commissioner S.Y.
Quraishi said here that
the decision to transfer
Mr Sain had nothing to do
with the incident involving
Mr Vadra. He said,
"Today's incident is unrelated
to the observer's
transfer. It has nothing to
do with it."
The EC in a statement
said that it had come
across "unwarranted references"
concerning its
decision to transfer Mr
Sain and clarified that "it
has been baselessly
linked to certain enforcement
action taken by Sain
in his capacity as an election
observer in an incident
involving Vadra in
an Assembly constituency
in Chatrapati Shivaji
Maharaj (CSM)Nagar".
It further said, "The officer
acted in accordance
with the law and fully in
conformity with the
instructions of ECI."