‘Resolution’ of Complaints by the Election Commission of India: A Timeline

Consider the following timeline:

April 22, 2024: A complaint is lodged with the Election Commission of India (ECI), for violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) by a star campaigner of one of the leading political parties in the country, via an email to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and the two Election Commissioners (ECs). The complaint pertains to two election related provisions: (a) violation of MCC, (b) violation of the Representation of the People  Act, 1951, and one general law of the country, not related to elections, violation of the Indian Penal Code.

July 15, 2024: An email is received by the complainant reading:

“Dear xxx  xxx,

Thank you for writing to Election Commission of India.

We request you to provide following details for further process:

State:-

District:-       

Assembly Constituency (AC):-

We ensure that your details will be kept safe within the department and will not be shared with anyone.

For further Query/Complaints, please contact us on 1800-11-1950

Thanks & Regards,

Election Commission of India”

July 18, 2024: The following response is sent by the complainant to the ECI:

“Dear Election Commission of India,

1. 1. I am surprised to receive your email of 15 July 2024.
   2. I am surprised because your email of July 15, 2024, is in response to my email of April 22, 2024 which was marked “MOST URGENT” , which was addressed BY NAME to the CEC and the two ECs, and which pertained to the election process that was then underway. Initiating action on a “MOST URGENT” after a gap of three months, is obviously surprising.
   3. Now to the content of your email. You have asked me to provide details of “State, District, and Assembly Constituency (AC)”. This is another reason for surprise because my letter of April 22, clearly mentions that it is about a speech delivered by the Prime Minister in Banswara in Rajasthan. This is actually SHOCKING because if the ECI cannot find the Assembly Constituency for Banswara in Rajasthan, and has to ask a citizen for this information, it is actually a matter of shame.
   4. I find your email NOTHING BUT A LAME ATTEMPT TO CREATE DOCUMENTATION THAT SOME ACTION HAS BEEN TAKEN.
   5. IN CASE YOU ACTUALLY HAVE SOME DESIRE TO TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION, I suggest a First Information Report should be lodged against the person who made a speech in direct violation of Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code, under advice to me.

xxx xxx”

July 19, 2024: The following response is received from the ECI:

“Dear xxx  xxx,  

Thank you for writing to Election Commission of India.

We request you to provide following complainant [bold in the original] details for further process:

  State:-

District:-

Assembly Constituency (AC):-

We ensure that your details will be kept safe within the department and will not be shared with anyone.

For further Query/Complaints, please contact us on 1800-11-1950

Thanks & Regards,

Election Commission of India”

July 21, 2024 [2:02 pm]: The information asked for by the ECI in the above email of July 19, 2024 is provided to the ECI.

July 21, 2024 [2:20 pm]: The following email is received from ECI:

“Dear xxx  xxx,

Thank you for writing to Election Commission of India.

This is to inform you that we have raised a complaint to the concerned officers through our NGS portal; also we are personally forwarding this Email to concerned officer for quick response.

We would request you to wait for reply from the officer/department concerned.

For further Query/Complaints, please contact us on 1800-11-1950

Thanks & Regards,         

Election Commission of India”

August 02, 2024: The following text message (SMS) is received by the complainant:

“Your complaint with Reference number NGU05N210724665137 has been resolved on 2024-08-02T16:28:43.Thanks, ECI.”

August 13, 2024: The following email is sent to the ECI:

“Thank you for your email.

I received an SMS from “JM-ECIsms” on August 02, 2024, saying the following:

“Your complaint with Reference number NGU05N210724665137 has been resolved on 2024-08-02T16:28:43.Thanks, ECI.” 

I am not sure which complaint this SMS is referring to. Can you please clarify if this is the complaint that you had emailed to me about?

Thank you.

xxx  xxx”

August 13, 2024: The following email is received from the ECI:

“Dear xxx  xxx,

Thank you for writing to Election Commission of India.

This is to inform you that revert of your complaint is “This type complaint not pertain to this office.“.

If you are not satisfied with department’s revert, kindly write back to us. We will forward your concern again to the department.

For further Query/Complaints, please contact us on 1800-11-1950

Thanks & Regards,

Election Commission of India”

August 16, 2024: The number provided in all of ECI’s emails is called. After the usual voicemail guidance and pressing of appropriate digits, the following 6 minutes 20 seconds conversation ensues:

The person on the helpline kept repeating that this complaint has been resolved August 2, 2024, and that “this type [of] complaint [does] not pertain to this office.”

When asked if he could help me by telling which office should be contacted for “this type [of] complaint”, he advised to contact the RO of the complainant’s constituency in Delhi. He offered to give the helpline number of the Delhi CEO’s office.

When told that the violation of the MCC in the complaint occurred in Rajasthan and the RO of the Delhi constituency was not likely to know anything about it, he said the RO of the constituency in Rajasthan should be contacted. He offered to give me the helpline number of the Rajasthan CEO’s office.

When told that, as far as could be made out based on available information, both these ROs were not have likely to have any information about the complaint because the ECI had not informed that the complaint has been forwarded to them; he said the complaint will need to be explained to them so that they can register the complaint.

At the expression of surprise that this would mean the complaint of April 22, that was sent to the three ECs on their emails by name, will not have any effect and a fresh complaint will be registered now, he said that complaint has been resolved on August 02.

Since the conversation was back to square one, he was thanked for his attempt to help and call was closed.

This is a factual narration of what transpired when a citizen lodged a complaint for violation of the MCC to the highest levels in the ECI. The opening sentence of the complaint said, “I write to you as a concerned citizen of India…”

Post script

It is gleaned from the media that a number of complaints were lodged for the same instance, including some by political parties. The ECI issued a notice to the president of the political party concerned on April 25, 2024 – it is worth noting that the citizen’s complaint was filed three days before this. The ECI also issued an identical notice to another leading political party of the country at the same time.

After the political party had responded to the ECI’s notice, the ECI issued a a detailed letter to the party concerned laying out broad expectations that the ECI had from political parties about how they deal with their star campaigners. However, it did not take any action on the specific instance that the citizen’s complaint referred to, although this particular instance was stated in the complaint by the other political party.

It seem that the ECI seems to treat individual citizen’s complaints with scant, actually no, attention and pays more attention to complaints by political parties against each other.