Investigating Election Commission Disputes

People are saying someone handed you papers

or that you went somewhere, met someone, and he gave you those papers.

I just want to clarify that if it were that easy, then

there would be no need for an investigation, for someone to come and drop papers in your lap

and leave. This is a rather filmi theory.

Journalism does not work like that. I have been covering the Election Commission

for ten years, and I am sure Deeptiman will agree with me

that every beat reporter spends a great deal of time

understanding a beat, assessing it, meeting people,

getting to know them, and, through their work,

earning their trust. When you earn that trust,

when they feel that you have no agenda, that you only

work with facts, and this is, in a way, the Indian Express

Our philosophy has also been that we work on facts. So when

people gain that trust, they gradually start opening up to you.

So stories don't break overnight. Some may, but

stories like these don't.

Where we're trying to tell people that over the past roughly one

year, there has been a difference of opinion in the Election Commission,

stories like these aren't found overnight. So, of course,

a lot of it is the culmination of having covered a beat for almost ten years now.

a beat for almost ten years now।

But we certainly had an inkling about seven or eight months ago

that

there were some differences among the three Election Commission commissioners

on certain issues.

After getting that tip-off, of course, we began speaking to people.

Those conversations continued for several months. Based on

those conversations, we were able to prepare a framework that

We found out that there were three or four important issues on which these people had

What can I say, not a dispute, but some former commissioners

were unhappy.

But our investigation actually picked up pace in the last two months

when our framework was ready and also, if we had to give anyone documents

then we did not need to go to as many as four states. We

got some input, got some documents. Based on that, we went and many

were obtained by us

documents from the ground as well.

Where all did you have to go?

We went, of course, to Delhi, Mumbai, Goa

and Kolkata. We went to four cities over a

period of the last month, a little over the last month.

A-and

again, the short answer to your question is that it didn't happen

overnight. It was obviously based on a tip-off. After receiving the tip-off,

we spoke to people, and then after that, whatever investigation

Whatever someone does, everyone knows that you then go out into the field to verify it

and try to gather every piece of evidence possible

are.