Poll rule change kicks off Oppn-Centre battle

Opposition leaders on Sunday hit out at the government for tweaking an election rule to restrict default public access to certain election material such as CCTV camera footage, with Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge calling it the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government's "systematic conspiracy" to destroy the integrity of the Election Commission of India (ECI), a charge dismissed by the ruling side as an act of frustration over frequent electoral losses.

- Dheer Chawla

Kharge said Prime Minister Narendra Modi government's "calibrated erosion" of the ECI's integrity was a frontal attack on the Constitution and democracy.

"Modi government's audacious amendment in the Conduct of Election Rules is another assault in its systematic conspiracy to destroy the institutional integrity of the Election Commission of India. Earlier, they had removed the Chief Justice of India from the Selection panel which appoints Election Commissioners, and now they have resorted to stonewall electoral information, even after a High Court order," the Congress leader said in a post on X.

The comments came after the Union law ministry on Friday amended Rule 93(2)(a) of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, to restrict the type of "papers" or documents open to public inspection.

The earlier rule stated that "all other papers relating to the election shall be open to public inspection". This has now been restricted to "papers as specified in these rules". The changes were introduced after a recommendation from the Election Commission.

Officials aware of the matter said the changes were brought in for protection of privacy and to avert misuse of footage, by way of generating deepfakes through artificial intelligence for instance.

The Election Commission did not respond to HT's requests for a comment.