By Munize Ali, TwoCircles.net,
Guwahati: From the coming five assembly elections, the Election Commission of India will bring in a new format of affidavit for candidates. As the new format will make public some crucial information about the candidate, the National Election Watch, a civil society watchdog for electoral reform, and eminent citizens including some former chief election commissioners have welcomed the EC move.
Mr IC Dwivedi (former DGP), Mr JM Lyngdoh (former CEC), Mr Prakash Singh (former DGP), Mr T S Krishnamurthy (former CEC), Mr M G Devasahayam (Forum of Electoral Integrity), Mr Nikhil Dey (MKSS), Prof Jagdeep Chhokar (former Director of IIM Ahmedabad), besides various Election Watch groups have lauded the Election Commission for the new format of affidavit.
According to National Election Watch, the new format will give information about criminal background, assets, liabilities and educational qualifications, in pursuance of the judgment and order dated 13th March, 2003 of Supreme Court. ECI has revised the affidavit to incorporate details of PAN and status of filing of Income tax return, details of conviction by a court of law, details of profession or occupation and also obtain abstract of the details of assets, liabilities and educational qualifications. The revised format will be used for all elections from now on. One of the most important features of the affidavit is the fields where the candidates, along with their spouse and dependants, will have to declare when they filed taxes last time along with the income declared in their Income Tax Returns.
It may be recalled that according to reports of Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW), the assets of MPs and MLAs generally have shown huge growth. As an example, the press note of NEW says that the assets of all re-elected MPs in Lok Sabha 2009 elections had grown by an average of 3.7 crores (288%). Voters have long wondered about the declared income of these politicians. These details will now help voters connect the two pieces together and make an informed choice during voting.
The Income Tax department and CBDT have also long complained that matching a candidate’s assets with their income tax is a very painful and long drawn exercise. In the light of the recent discrepancy on Income details highlighted by the CBDT for about 300 politicians, these details have become very important. They will help make it easier for these departments also to do their work faster.
Another important detail which will now be captured will be on all immovable properties. The candidate will have to declare whether the property was inherited or purchased by them. In case it was purchased, they will have to declare the date of purchase, the purchase price and the approximate current value. Voters have several questions about properties owned by our politicians. Some politicians have also complained that the earlier affidavit didn’t give correct picture about their assets as some of them had owned a small house several years back whose value have shot up. These details will help remove the confusion about these issues.
In other asset declarations also, e.g. that of car, jewelery, etc, ECI has now specified that the current value has to be given. There has been lot of inconsistencies about these declarations which will now be removed.
There are also other changes to make the information on affidavit more consistent, e.g. the section 9 of the affidavit has an “abstract summary” of all details, which means a voter does not have to go through all the pages to get the information on the candidate. They can just look at this section to get the summary. There also is a field for candidate’s party and their declared profession, which now makes it easier for researchers etc. to get these details, as they do not have to match these details from different sources.
Mr I C Dwivedi of UP Election Watch (and former DGP of UP) said, “Experience had shown that some very relevant information was not being furnished by the candidates as the prescribed format of the affidavit did not specifically mention about it. The new format would certainly help the voter in getting a clearer picture of the candidate”.
Former CEC Mr J M Lyngdoh said, “This new information is going to be very interesting and will help make our politicians more accountable. Voters have tried hard to get this information for their candidates in past from other sources. Election Commission must be lauded for this step”
Mr Nikhil Dey of MKSS and Rajasthan Election Watch said, “In the current scenario, we have to take more steps to bring in transparency. There is huge lack of transparency in the working of political parties, at least this information on candidates will now be available to voters”.
Former Chief Election Commissioner Mr T S Krishnamurthy said, “The new affidavit expands the information content about the contesting candidate for the voter to judge the candidates before voting. The income tax particulars would give some insight into the wealth/income as also degree of transparency of the contesting candidate.”
M.G.Devasahayam of Forum for Electoral Integrity and Tamil Nadu Election Watch said, “”The format and contents of the new affidavit is very timely and a welcome decision by the Election Commission. It is public knowledge that most of the assets, wealth and properties acquired by corrupt politicians are benami transactions in the names of spouse and dependants. Asking candidates to declare the details of these is a step in the right direction”
Prof Jagdeep Chhokar (former director of IIM Ahmedabad) said “Given the overall atmosphere when a new corruption scandal seems to be discovered almost every day, the revised form of the affidavit is very timely and comes like a breath of fresh air. Election Commission deserves to be complimented for taking this initiative toward greater transparency in the electoral process which is the foundation of an effective democracy.”
Contacts:
State———————-Election Watch Coordinator—Contact details
Assam——————————Mr. Tasaduk Ariful Hussain—E: [email protected], T: 91-361-2338888, M: +91 9435054775
Kerala———————-Mr. Sudhir Kumar—————E: [email protected], M: +91 9349755595
Puducherry ———————Mr. Victor———————-E: [email protected]; M: +91 9486086938
Tamil Nadu———————Dr. Sudarshan Padmanabhan–E: [email protected]; M: +91 9444782793
West Bengal———————Mr. Biplab Halim————–E: [email protected], T: 033-24836491, 24725571; M: +91 9968234023
National Coordinator——— Anil Bairwal—————-E: [email protected], [email protected], M: +91 9999 310100