DNA: Ahmedabad: Friday,
April 18, 2014.
It was
curiosity about the citizenship of BJP's Goa MLA Glenn Ticlo it was alleged
that he had a Portuguese citizenship that led Roshan Shah, 38, a serial
entrepreneur to file an RTI in the PMO requesting information about MPs and
MLAs who are foreign nationals or hold passports of other countries.
"The
reply I received surprised me. My query was directed to the Election Commission
which wrote to me saying that they had no such data available!" said Shah.
"It was
then I realised how easy it was for a foreign national to fight elections in
India and to get elected to the Parliament," said Shah. To test his
hypothesis, Shah decided to contest the elections not from one, but two seats.
"As I
filled the form and my candidature was scrutinised, I realised that nowhere do
they ask the candidates to state on oath that you are an Indian citizen. They
ask about criminal records and assets and liabilities but what about the basic
rule that only Indian citizens can contest elections. This shows how poorly the
candidates are scrutinised by the returning officer," said Shah.
"After
my candidature was cleared and I was assigned the ballot number and symbol (a
calculator), I wrote to the Chief Election Commissioner of Gujarat and India
Anita Karval and VS Sampath respectively, stating clearly that I was a Canadian
citizen and why my candidature was not cancelled."
"Had my
intentions been malafide, I would not have revealed my citizenship. What I am
trying to show is how poor the process of scrutiny is. How easy it is for
anyone to contest a poll in India. I have not lied on oath. There is nothing in
Election nomination forms that wants candidate to disclose citizenship,"
said Shah.
He said it is
time the EC takes up the matter and makes it mandatory for candidates to reveal
their citizenship. "We also need to know how many of our sitting MLAs and
MPs, who frame laws for India and its states, are passport holders of other
countries. It is surprising that we have no such data," said Shah.
He further
added that more time should be given to returning officers to closely
scrutinise what candidates write on their forms. "This is very important
if we want to clean up politics," said Shah.
Chief
Electoral Officer, Anita Karval said the Election Commission had no mechanism
in place to check the candidates' citizenship. "We don't have any such
mechanism in to check if a candidate is an Indian citizen or not. We assume
that if not an Indian citizen, he will not be contesting the elections,"
said Karval.
Shah said
another reason for contesting was a bad experience that he had with the police
and the state administration in general. Shah said he realised how irresponsive
the system was after he had to haggle with the police to get a case of cheque
dishounoured registered.
"I
realised that the system was loaded against you if you are a common man with no
connections," said Shah. "My case was registered with the Maninagar
police CM's constituency after a long battle. If this is how the police behaves
in the CM's constituency you can wonder how it will be in others," said
Shah, who lives with his family of five including his parents.
What I am
trying to show is how poor the process of scrutiny is. How easy it is for
anyone to contest a poll in India. I have not lied on oath. There is nothing in
Election nomination forms that wants candidate to disclose citizenship.
- Roshan Shah, Independent candidate
from Ahmedabad East & Kheda.
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