•Unni Rajen Shanker: What is the EC’s purpose of removing the chief minister’s photograph from his office or the PM’s picture from the Press Information Bureau website? 

A level playing field has to be provided and usually the ruling party has an advantage. As per the model code of conduct for the elections, public property cannot be used for propaganda and if a chief minister has his/her photo on a hoarding or a calendar, he has an advantage others don’t have. Such photos are removed to ensure a level playing field.

•Seema Chishti: But you have taken the fun out of campaigning. This was the one secular and national festival where money flowed, people felt good and there was an air of celebration everywhere in India. No longer. How does this drabness imply a more disciplined kind of election?

What do you mean by fun? What have we stopped? The ‘fun’ used to be that your walls would be painted with ‘vote for XYZ’ signs, which you would have to remove at your own cost. There used to be blaring loudspeakers, disturbing the elderly and children studying late at night. There used to be a cavalcade of cars, sometimes 1,000 cars, accompanying the candidate to file his nomination papers causing public nuisance and traffic jams unnecessarily. There are Acts against defacement and pollution in every state, Acts that say this kind of nuisance must not be allowed. It is supposed to be implemented round the year, but no one bothers. We do, and insist that all the concerned existing laws must be obeyed. Some restrictions are also there to ensure proper accounting for expenditure (restricted to Rs 25 lakh for Lok Sabha elections).

... contd.