02-06-2006, 09:54 PM
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'><span style='font-family:Geneva'> <!--emo&:clapping--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clap.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='clap.gif' /><!--endemo--> BJP guns for election commissioner Naveen Chawla
Source: IANS.
New Delhi, February 6: The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday demanded a member of the Election Commission should step down following a TV expose that trusts run by him and his family had received donations from MPs of the ruling Congress.
The Times Now channel had reported on Monday that Congress MPs had diverted money from their funds to develop their constituencies to trusts run by Naveen Chawla - who was appointed election commissioner May 15, 2005 - and his family.
"It's a question of retaining the Election Commission's autonomy. Election commissioners have to be impartial, independent and politically detached," BJP spokesman Arun Jaitley told reporters.
"Can this be said of Chawla after his trusts received money from Congress MPs? The answer is no.
"An election commissioner is both a political umpire and an ombudsman. Chawla has proved his lack of political detachment and this is a matter of concern because the credibility of the Election Commission gets eroded," Jaitley said.
"It is for Chawla to honestly introspect whether this lack of political detachment makes it appropriate for him to continue. If he decides to stay, then the Chief Election Commissioner should recommend to the president he be removed.
"If that too doesn't happen we will agitate for this," Jaitley said in what he termed the BJP's "measured response" to the episode.
According to Jaitley, the BJP was not focusing on whether or not it was correct to give money to private trusts or how it was spent, but on the need for the Election Commission to "assert its impartiality" by getting rid of Chawla.
Jaitley also highlighted the "well-known connections" of Chawla with the Nehru-Gandhi family that has been in power for 50 of the 59 years India has been an independent country.
In this context, he pointed out that a probe into demolitions in the Muslim-dominated Turkman Gate area of Delhi during the Emergency of 1975-1977 had been overseen by Chawla at the behest of then prime minister Indira Gandhi's younger son Sanjay Gandhi</span></span>
Source: IANS.
New Delhi, February 6: The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday demanded a member of the Election Commission should step down following a TV expose that trusts run by him and his family had received donations from MPs of the ruling Congress.
The Times Now channel had reported on Monday that Congress MPs had diverted money from their funds to develop their constituencies to trusts run by Naveen Chawla - who was appointed election commissioner May 15, 2005 - and his family.
"It's a question of retaining the Election Commission's autonomy. Election commissioners have to be impartial, independent and politically detached," BJP spokesman Arun Jaitley told reporters.
"Can this be said of Chawla after his trusts received money from Congress MPs? The answer is no.
"An election commissioner is both a political umpire and an ombudsman. Chawla has proved his lack of political detachment and this is a matter of concern because the credibility of the Election Commission gets eroded," Jaitley said.
"It is for Chawla to honestly introspect whether this lack of political detachment makes it appropriate for him to continue. If he decides to stay, then the Chief Election Commissioner should recommend to the president he be removed.
"If that too doesn't happen we will agitate for this," Jaitley said in what he termed the BJP's "measured response" to the episode.
According to Jaitley, the BJP was not focusing on whether or not it was correct to give money to private trusts or how it was spent, but on the need for the Election Commission to "assert its impartiality" by getting rid of Chawla.
Jaitley also highlighted the "well-known connections" of Chawla with the Nehru-Gandhi family that has been in power for 50 of the 59 years India has been an independent country.
In this context, he pointed out that a probe into demolitions in the Muslim-dominated Turkman Gate area of Delhi during the Emergency of 1975-1977 had been overseen by Chawla at the behest of then prime minister Indira Gandhi's younger son Sanjay Gandhi</span></span>