Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Monday alleged that the Union government’s move to amend an election rule to restrict public access to poll-related documents was done “to kill the transparency in election” adding that “democracy is facing its gravest threat”.

Stalin in a social media post said that “it is shocking that the Election Commission of India, instead of fighting for institutional integrity, has willingly succumbed to the pressure of Prime Minister Modi’s Government and happily involved in defacing its own child - the free and fair election!”

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had on Sunday alleged that the Union government’s amendment was part of a “systematic conspiracy” to undermine the Election Commission’s integrity.

Kharge wrote in a post on X that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government’s “calibrated erosion” of the Election Commission’s institutional integrity was a frontal attack on the Constitution and democracy.

As first reported by Scroll, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government on Friday amended Rule 93(2)(a) of the 1961 Conduct of Election Rules, which stated that “all other papers relating to the election shall be open to public inspection”.

The amended version of the rule said: “All other papers as specified in these rules relating to the election shall be open to public inspection.”

With this change notified by the Union Ministry of Law and Justice, in consultation with the Election Commission, not all poll-related papers can be inspected by the public. Only those papers specified in the Conduct of Election Rules can be inspected by the public.

The courts would also not be able to direct the poll panel to provide all election-related papers to the public.

This came days after the Punjab and Haryana High Court on December 9 directed the Election Commission to provide videography, security camera footage and copies of documents related to votes polled at a polling station during the recent Haryana Assembly elections to advocate Mehmood Pracha.

On Saturday Kharge said that the Centre first removed the chief justice of India from the panel to appoint Election Commissioners, and had now “resorted to stonewall electoral information, even after a High Court order”.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha claimed that when the Congress wrote to the Election Commission about alleged poll irregularities, it responded "in a condescending tone” and did not even acknowledge certain serious complaints.

“This again proves that the ECI, even though is a quasi-judicial body is not behaving independently,'“ he said.

On Saturday, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh had said that the amendment to the Conduct of Election Rules lent credence to the party’s repeated assertions regarding the “rapidly eroding integrity” of the electoral process managed by the Election Commission.

“Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and information will restore faith in the process – a reasoning the Punjab and Haryana High Court agreed with when it directed the ECI [Election Commission] to share all information that it is legally required to do so with the public,” Ramesh said on the social media platform X.

“Yet the ECI, instead of complying with the judgment, rushes to amend the law to curtail the list of what can be shared,” the Rajya Sabha MP added. “Why is the ECI so afraid of transparency?”

His party colleague and Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal demanded a reversal of the notification, adding that they are “exploring legal aspects to challenge this amendment”.

Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal said that the changes to the rules meant that something was “very wrong”. His party colleague PVS Sarma claimed that transparency had gone for a “morning walk” with the amendment.

Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) spokesperson Anish Gawande also criticised the Union government’s “latest assault” on transparency with the changes in the election rules.

Right to Information activist Anjali Bhardwaj said that the amendment to the Conduct of Elections Rules was a “huge setback” for transparency.