Sunil Arora, a 1980 batch IAS officer, has been part of Rajasthan government twice. Once as secretary to chief minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and then as principal secretary to chief minister Vasundhara Raje. The joke in Rajasthan during his first stint as secretary to CM was that Bhairon Singh won the election but Sunil Arora ran the government. Arora later served as secretary to the ministries of skill development and I&B. After retirement, Arora joined the Election Commission as an election commissioner. He retired from the EC as the Chief Election Commissioner in 2021. Excerpts:Santwana Bhattacharya: Please share your experience on the current status of the Election Commission of India.I have a lot of respect for all officials down to the district level because they work so hard in the face of criticism. The technical committee of the Chief Election Commissioner of India is not appointed by the current commission. It is a 15-year-old body consisting of senior technocrats who have been in leadership positions at IIT and other reputed institutions. They don’t charge from the commission.Either the EVM was wrong for the first time or for the second time. I can look into the eyes of everybody as ECI on or off record. EVMs cannot be hacked.Everybody speaks about EVMs. If a section of parties tells the EC to introduce or make it mandatory to have VVPATs along with EVMs, why will the EC oppose or not give the political parties the time for discussion to make it mandatory?Suchitra Mohanty: What would you say about Centre’s stand in the Supreme Court on the appointment of two new election commissioners under a 2023 law that excludes the Chief Justice of India from the selection committee?If a judge is on a panel, it does not mean the panel would be absolutely impartial or unbiased. For instance, Harish Salve, former solicitor general, recently commented that there was hardly any country where judges appoint judges.Secondly, who am I as a citizen to comment on the Chief Justice of India?But I’d say that we don’t have to be judgmental in every decision.
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