New Delhi, May 11
Even as President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is believed to have sought a detailed report from the Manmohan Singh Government about the controversy surrounding the Election Commission and alluded to the constitutional body doing an excellent job in overseeing the conduct of the gigantic democratic process in the country, Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and pressed for the resignation of Election Commissioners B.B. Tandon and N. Gopalaswamy.

UPA Government unlikely to interfere or dilute EC’s constitutional mandate Despite divisions in LJP, Lalu Prasad Yadav sticks to his guns Bureaucrat Saptharishi files reply to show-cause notice Indian Lawyers Guild petitions President Kalam to fix conditions of appointment

Mr Yadav told mediapersons after his meeting with Dr Singh that there was no dilution in his stand of seeing the back of Mr Tandon and Mr Gopalaswamy. At the same time, Mr Prasad’s senior RJD colleague and Union Rural Development Minister, Mr Raghuvansh Prasad, who also met Dr Singh separately, concurred with the Prime Minister’s assertion that the dignity and decorum of the Election Commission should be maintained.

Mr Prasad feels strongly that his mentor and Union Railway Minister has chosen to tread a lone path much to the chagrin of others in the RJD in insisting that the two Election Commissioners step down. Mr Prasad is acutely aware that much like a Supreme Court judge, an Election Commissioner cannot be removed from office except through impeachment.

It is for this reason that the Indian Lawyer’s Guild has submitted a petition to Dr Kalam that he should lay down conditions for appointing Election Commissioners. ‘‘We will be making a mockery of democracy if civil servants holding office of profit in the government are appointed Election Commissioner,’’ the petition said.

The UPA Government is firm and will not do anything that even remotely smacks of interfering with the work of the Election Commission considering its excellent track record in ensuring a free and far democratic process.

At the same time, outgoing Chief Election Commissioner T.S. Krishna Murthy also met the Prime Minister and sought to put an end to the controversy connected with the elections in the Chhapra Lok Sabha constituency last year. Mr Krishna Murthy apprised Dr Singh of the entire developments as well as the EC’s internal inquiry into charges of large-scale rigging in Mr Prasad’s constituency.

Simultaneously, Mr Saptharishi, who was special observer in Bihar during the general elections and has raised a hornet’s nest, said that he had sent a three-page reply to the show-cause notice and had made the complaint in national interest as IAS officers had also been given powers to protect the Constitution.

The controversial officer from the West Bengal cadre claimed he had written to Union Law minister H R Bhardwaj that Mr Tandon and Mr Gopalaswamy had attempted to get the Chhapra elections countermanded.

Clearly, Dr Kalam is concerned that Election Commissioners of the multi-member EC are sought to be targetted and wondered about the veracity of the allegations levelled by a maverick bureaucrat L V Saptharishi. A show-cause notice has already been served on Mr Saptharishi by the Department of Personnel for violating the Civil Service (Conduct) Rules in training his guns on Mr Tandon and Mr Gopalaswamy.

When the outgoing Chief Election Commissioner accompanied by his successor Mr Tandon and Mr Gopalachari called on the President yesterday to put the record straight about the problems with Chhapra constituency from where Mr Yadav contested the elections, Dr Kalam wondered if Mr Saptharishi’s allegations against the two Election Commissioners in particular could hold water.

Breaking into Tamil infrequently as both Mr Krishna Murthy and Mr Gopalaswamy also hail from Tamil Nadu, Dr Kalam is reported to have impressed upon the three-member Election Commission that the autonomous body had been doing an excellent job in carrying out the mandate vested in it by the Constitution. Therefore, controversies were bound to surface and the EC should be conscious of it.

The President carefully heard the sequence of events in Chhapra necessitating the EC to conduct its own in-depth inquiry incognito to get to the bottom of the episode. The EC also handed over three files to Dr Kalam so that there was no room for any doubts or misgivings about the action taken by Nirvachan Sadan.

Union Minister of State for Personnel Suresh Pachauri is said to have telephoned Mr Tandon yesterday and downplayed the attack against him and Mr Gopalachari. The endeavour was to assure the EC that the government would not allow the sanctity of the constitutional institution to be eroded.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement aboard Air India One while flying back home from Moscow yesterday eulogising the Election Commission for its contribution and earning India the respect and admiration of the world should be a strong signal to the Saptharishis and the Lalu Prasad Yadavs.