By Dr. Bikkar Singh Lalli
There are always some episodes or occurrences in your life which are hard to forget. They stay in your memory as good or bad dreams. Every time an election is held, in some province of India, I am reminded of some of such episodes that occurred during my stint as a presiding officer in 1954, 1958 and 1962 elections in PEPSU and Punjab.
In 1953, I was selected by the PEPSU (Patiala and East Punjab States Union) Public Service Commission to teach in Rajindra College Bhathinda against a Gazetted Post. Since, PEPSU was, at that time under Governors Rule, in Jan. 1954, the Election Commission declared that the elections, in PEPSU, would be held in Feb. After finishing my first assignment as a presiding officer, in Dhury on Feb. 20, I moved to Barnala to complete my next assignment on Feb. 22. My party, consisting of three polling officers and a police inspector with his team, arrived at the Barnala guest house. The caretaker of the guest house was not ready to welcome the party, since, according to govt. rules, only a gazetted officer was entitled to stay there and to him I looked too young to be in a gazetted rank.. On the morning of Feb. 22, I got all the formalities completed – ballot boxes with proper symbols-were placed in a tent, and the police force was given necessary instructions. to keep order in the designated area.
The main contest, in that constituency, was between a young lawyer representing the Akali party and an old guard-Baba Bhalath, representing the communist party. I gave a warning to all the polling agents representing the contesting parties that “any ballot left on the top of a box will be cancelled”. Later on when I discovered that some voters, for Congress and Akali candidates, were not doing just that, I took a spare box and demonstrated again and asked the polling agents to tell their supporters how to cast a vote. I had a quote by William Shakespeare, pasted on my study table in my office: “To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man”. At the end of the day, when voting was closed, to my great dismay, I had cancelled 27 ballots meant for the young lawyer, and 11 for the congress candidate. Lo and behold! when election results were declared, the young lawyer lost by just four votes. That lawyer was Mr. Surjit Singh Barnala.
On Feb. 24, I had to conduct the polling in a village about 15 miles away from Bhathinda. The Sarpanch of that village made all the arrangement for the stay of my party, and for the conduct of the polling. Around 4PM, the candidate representing the Akali party, a retired financial commissioner, (Mr. Sidhu), of the state, approached me with an extremely fierce look, and asked me to check and prepare a report that the Congress party was providing a ride to the voters. The police inspector, who knew the commissioner and about his standing in the party, got ready to do just that. I had to put my foot down and tell the inspector to wait for my instructions. I looked at the guide booklet regarding the rules and regulations prepared by EC. I discovered that I had jurisdiction only over a limited area surrounding the polling station. Humbly, I expressed my inability to do what he wanted.. He started yelling at me. Later on he sent a wire to the governor and also filed a complaint against me with the commissioner of the Bhathinda division. Next day, I left for my home to help the family regarding arrangements for my marriage which was to be held on March 1. I had a hunch that I would have trouble ahead.
The commissioner, Mr. Sodhi, asked a local judge, Mr. Jawala Singh, to make enquiries regarding the episode at the polling station indicated by the complainant. Mr. Jawala Singh, called me and the complainant to his court. Before he could start the questioning, I asked the judge the following question:” I am not a lawyer, but I think that any complaint or grievance regarding the conduct of the election should be filed with the Election Tribunal?” “Yes”, literally shouted the judge, as if he felt a great relief at my intervention. I was sitting to the right of the judge. When I started getting up he pinched me and thus, indirectly asked me to stay on. After the complainant left the room leaving an angry shout behind, Mr. Jawala Singh: “ I must say that you have done a great favour to me”.
Within a few days, I started getting angry messages ” change your report or else”. Surprisingly, the principal of the govt. college, asked me to think about the situation very seriously. Interestingly, the younger brother of Mr. Sidhu, was on my side, along with all the members of the students’ union. However, in June 1955, the congress govt., transferred me to the Govt. College Nabha, where, to my great surprise I found, a son of Mr. Jawala Singh, in my class. In 1956, I was called to appear before the election tribunal. When I reached Bhathinda I was told that Mr. Sidhu had withdrawn his petition.
My last assignment, as a presiding officer, was in 1962, in a village named Jasowal in Ludhiana district. Justice Gurnam Singh was a candidate for a seat in Punjab legislature, and Mr. Kapoor Singh ICS, a candidate for the Indian Parliament. What happened there, is a long story. Frankly speaking, I was temperamentally unfit for a civil service job in Indian environment.
