Flagging a 'crisis of electoral trust in India', Pawan Khera has underscored how the BJP-led NDA government has restricted public access to election documents. The Congress leader cited a December 9 order from the Punjab & Haryana High Court to the Election Commission, which demanded sharing of CCTV footage and Form 17C records from the Haryana elections.

He then stated how the EC wrote to the Law Ministry to propose changes to Rule 93 of the Conduct of Election Rules and how the poll body argued that allowing inspection of “all other papers” created an “administrative burden”.

"By 10:23 PM on Dec 20, the rule was amended and notified. The phrase “all other papers relating to the election shall be open to public inspection” was replaced with “all other papers as specified in these rules”, quietly narrowing public access," he added, sharing an article from Scroll.in.

Khera also stated in his post on X that the rules were amended and officially notified by December 20 last year. “The phrase “all other papers relating to the election shall be open to public inspection” was replaced with “all other papers as specified in these rules”, quietly narrowing public access,” he wrote.

According to news website Scroll, the amendment was approved and officially notified in under two days, even though law officers had raised concerns about the wording in the initial draft.

The Congress leader claimed that the amendment created a “legal ambiguity” and undermined the original purpose of the rule established in 1961.

“The amendment effectively blocks access to CCTV footage, video recordings, and other electronic records, none of which are “specified” in the old rulebook,” he wrote.

He further added that the pace of the development, from court order to notification in just 11 days, was striking. “The timing and speed, just 11 days from court order to notification, are notable,” he wrote on X.

This comes days after Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader, demanded that the Election Commission publish unified, digital voter lists in a format that machines can read for the recent parliamentary and state assembly elections nationwide, including Maharashtra.