India Detains Hundreds as Protesters Demand Election Chief Resign
Delhi lockdown and Mumbai rallies target CEC Gyanesh Kumar over voter-roll purge
2 min read
File photo: India's Parliament House (Sansad Bhavan) in New Delhi. Photo: Nikhilb239, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
An Indian Express investigation reported that Kumar frequently overruled concerns raised by the two other election commissioners about the integrity of the voter-database changes. The commission has not refuted that report and has indicated it is addressing concerns raised by the other commissioners.
Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has called for Kumar to be tried for treason. Taking a further jab, Gandhi urged the election chief to become a state witness, saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah would eventually face prosecution for “treason.”
Analysts: high stakes for Modi
N Sai Balaji, a senior leader of the All India Students’ Association, told Al Jazeera that “Gyanesh Kumar needs to go,” arguing that if he remains chief, “no one will trust any electoral outcome in the so-called world’s largest democracy.”
Neelanjan Sircar, a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, said Kumar has been “the bureaucrat of choice” for consequential government projects and that forcing him out “would be a much bigger blow for the Modi government.”
Political analyst Asim Ali said he does not expect the government to yield, arguing that “Kumar’s resignation would be seen as a fatal admission of guilt” that would undermine the legitimacy of elections. Ali also warned that protest leaders are now more experienced than during earlier mobilisations: “There are no assured brakes. And that makes this situation more explosive.”
