Tharoor violated rules to become an Indian voter

Shashi Tharoor violated rules to become an Indian voter

courtesy: keralawatch.com

• Former UN Under Secretary’s Ministerial position in question

Varun Ramesh

Thiruvananthapuram: Union Minister of State for External Affairs and former UN Under Secretary Sasi Tharoor has fabricated documents to enroll into the electoral rolls in India. According to the documents obtained by Keralawatch.com Tharoor has violated many rules and norms while submitting application to register as a voter in Thiruvananthapuram constituency, from where he has been elected to Indian Parliament.

Sasi Tharoor submitted the application on the same day he took a house on rent in Thiruvananthapuram without staying there even for a day. Electoral Registration Officer of Thiruvananthapuram took action on Tharoor’s application without following any norms. Investigation by Keralawatch.com brings out five major wrongdoings in enrolling Sasi Tharoor as a voter.

1. Sasi Tharoor was not an ordinary resident in Thiruvananthapuram even for a day while submitting application for enrolment.
2. He had omitted the testimony column in the application where it states the period of residence in the constituency. This is a grave mistake in filing the application.
3. Tharoor submitted a residential certificate obtained by him exclusively to apply for a ration card along with the application for enrolment. This is against the law.
4. The hearing process, which is mandatory for considering the application, didn’t take place in Tharoor’s case.
5. Tharoor’s name was enrolled under VIP consideration for which he is not legally entitled to.

1. Sasi Tharoor was not an ordinary resident in Thiruvananthapuram even for a day while submitting application for enrolment.

Sasi Tharoor signed a rent agreement for Vembanad House, TC 9/277 (2), Palace Gardens, Golf Link Lane, Thiruvananthapuram on October 27, 2008. It was the same day he submitted application for enrolment into electoral rolls without residing at the place even for a day. (see the date in the attached rent agreement and the application).

(Rent agreement )

(Application for enrolment )

This violates the rule that the applicant should be an ordinary resident of the place while submitting application.

What is an Ordinary Resident?

According to the Section 19 (b) of Indian People’s Representation Act and Supreme Court of India’s elaboration, State Election Department (General) has clarified the word Ordinary resident as follows.

“ That the “ordinary Resident” in a constituency as mentioned in the representation of the people act 1950, shall mean a habitual resident of that place or a resident as a matter of fact in regular, normal or usual course. It means a usual and normal resident of that place. The resident must be permanent in character and not temporary or casual. It must be as above for a considerable time, he must have the intention to dwell permanently. He must have a settled abode at that place for a considerable length of time for which a reasonable man will accept him as the resident of that state.”

The documents given above clearly suggest that Sasi Tharoor hasn’t been settled in Thiruvananthapuram for a considerable length of time. Thus it is visible that Tharoor was not a habitual resident of the above address and no reasonable man can accept him as an ordinary resident on the same day he took a house on rent.

2. Tharoor had omitted the testimony column in the application where it shows the period of his residence at that place.

The testimony column in Paragraph IV of the application reads as follows.

According to my knowledge and belief, (1) I am an Indian citizen; residing at the address given in the second paragraph, from …………….. (date, month, year)…..

Tharoor hasn’t filled up the date or month in this column. It’s clear that Tharoor deliberately left this column vacant. Just below this column, he has given the date of application as October 27, 2008. So if he had filled up this column, he had to write the same date.

On Keralawatch’s inquiry, Election Department has clearly stated that strict instruction has been given to fill up part IV of Form 6. Another irony is that the same Electoral Registration Section which accepted the application of Sasi Tharoor has stated to Keralawatch that “only the applications properly filled up will be accepted.”

3. Tharoor got VIP consideration for the enrollment while he is not legally entitled to any such consideration

In the same page which is left unfilled by Tharoor, Electoral Registration Officer has mentioned Tharoor as a VIP giving his house number. HoweverKeralawatch’s investigation has revealed that Tharoor doesn’t come under the category entitled to get any such consideration. The list of persons who can be considered as VIPs, provided by State Election Commission is given below.

1. Indian President
2. Indian Vice-President
3. Governors of Indian states
4. Cabinet Ministers of Centre or any state
5. Deputy Chairman and members of Planning Commission
6. Ministers of State of the Union or any state
7. Deputy Ministers of State in Union or of any state
8. The Speaker of the House of the People or of any Legislative Assembly
9. The Chairman of any State Legislative Council
10. Lieutenant Governors of Union Territories
11. The Deputy Speaker of the House of the People or Legislative Assemblies
12. Vice-Chairman of the Legislative Council
13. Parliamentary Secretaries of the Centre or States

Sasi Tharoor hasn’t served in any of the above responsibilities. Then why did the Electoral Registration Officer mentioned him as a VIP, especially in an application form which was not completely filled? How can a former UN Under Secretary who unsuccessfully contested to the post of UN Secretary General be a VIP in an application form for enrolment into the electoral rolls of India?

4. Sasi Tharoor presented a residential certificate obtained for ration card to get enrolled into the electoral rolls

Keralawatch investigated about the documents submitted alongwith the application to support it. During that it was revealed that Tharoor submitted a residential certificate obtained by him exclusively for applying for a ration card in his new address.

It’s comparatively easy to get a residential certificate for supporting the application for a ration card. It can be obtained without any further inquiry if a letter from the corporation councilor is presented. But to get residential certificate for other purposes, it is mandatory that Revenue Inspector should submit a report after conducting an inquiry. Certificate can be given according to that report only. In Tharoor’s case no revenue inspector can give such a report as he hadn’t been resident at that place even for a day. That’s the reason Tharoor resorted to the residential certificate he had obtained for a ration card.

Given below is the information received from Thiruvananthapuram Corporation on queries regarding this.

This clearly states that for any other purpose than applying for a ration card, residential certificate could be obtained only after an inquiry by the Revenue Inspector. Instead of this process, Tharoor managed to collect a letter from Kowadiar ward Councilor A. Sunil Kumar on pretention of applying for a ration card.

He obtained that letter nine days after he took the house on rent. This letter clearly states that Tharoor can be given a residential certificate for applying for ration card. But he submitted this certificate along with his application for enrolment in the electoral rolls. Even the Residential Certificate reads that it is exclusively given to submit to the Chief Rationing Officer (CRO). (See the copy of the certificate attached)

1. The hearing process, which is mandatory for considering the application, didn’t take place in Tharoor’s case.

The document given below is the notice given to Sasi Tharoor for conducting the hearing on his application. Amazing factor is that the notice contains no details of the hearing such as place, time or other details of the hearing. Tharoor received the duplicate of this notice and it’s interesting that how he managed to understand the details of the hearing process.

Sasi Tharoor had submitted three supportive documents to his application.

1. Rent agreement

2. Letter from the corporation Councilor

3. Residential certificate

The process of hearing is supposed to verify all the documents submitted by the applicant. In Tharoor’s case, all the documents submitted are illegal or useless. But the officer didn’t even notice that Sasi Tharoor had submitted a residential certificate exclusively given to apply for a ration card.

Just below the testimony column of the application, it is clearly shown that “Any person who gives a false testimony or a testimony which he knows or believes is false is punishable under Section 31 of The People’s Representation Act, 1950. This section says any person who gives false information is entitled to get an imprisonment of one year, a fine or both.

Tharoor had won over Communist Party of India’s R. Ramachandran Nair with a majority of 99,998 votes. As it is proven that Tharoor took a wrong path to get enrolled in the voters’ list, both his candidature and position as a minister are in question.