Clean chit to PM Narendra Modi Ashok Lavasa recuses himself from EC meetings

NEW DELHI, May 18
One of the Election Comm-ission's three members has recused himself from meetings meant to discuss poll code violations and claims his minority decisions have gone unrecorded.
Sources told IANS, a newswire, that Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa expressed dissent over clean chits for four speeches made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and one by BJP president Amit Shah.
Ashok Lavasa has told Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora that his "participation in the deliberations of the Commission becomes meaningless" since his minority decisions "go unrecorded".
"I might consider taking recourse to other measures aimed at restoring the lawful functioning of the Commission in terms of recording minority decisions," Lavasa told Arora. "My various notes on the need for transparency in the recording and disclosure of all decisions including the minority view have gone unheeded, forcing me to withdraw from participating in the deliberations on the complaints."
The Congress pointed to Lavasa's decision as it took aim at the NDA administration on Saturday; its spokes- person Randeep Singh Surjewala said the "erosion of institutional integrity" was "the hallmark" of the Modi Government.
An NDTV report says that  "according to the Chief Election Commissioner, only minority views in quasi-judicial proceedings can be recorded in the orders and the decisions on poll code complaints are not quasi-judicial proceedings, hence minority views need not be recorded".
Ashok Lavasa has told Sunil Arora he will attend meetings if his minority decisions are included in the commission's orders, according to IANS.
The Election Commission's three members are Sunil Arora, Ashok Lavasa, and Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra. Agencies