The Election Commission of India (ECI), mandated by the Constitution to conduct free and fair polls, is under a cloud. With the last round of the seven-phase crucial general elections slated for May 19, this guardian of the world’s largest ballot-box battle involving 900 million voters is suffering from a crisis of credibility.
There is not an inkling of doubt that ever since it was set up in 1950, the most powerful electoral body has had an enviable record of swimmingly holding elections after elections despite the enormous challenges of scale and complexity. But soon after the commission announced the 39-day schedule for the Lok Sabha polls on March 10, it has been facing a barrage of brickbats day in and day out from the judiciary, politicians, journalists, bureaucrats and right-to-information activists for not living up to its constitutional obligations.
The ECI’s hallowed reputation first took a knock with the seizure of unaccounted cash, liquor, drugs, and precious metals, totalling a staggering Rs 50 billion till last month, making a mockery of the Rs 700,000 ceiling imposed by the ombudsman on spending by each candidate in the world’s most expensive—Rs 500 billion—electoral exercise.
The commission remained at the receiving end as its office was flooded with complaints of booth capturing, missing voter names and faulty electronic voting machines even as glad-handers and flesh-kissers threw its instructions to the winds during barnstorming by brazenly invoking religion and caste. Indeed, the ECI has received some 500 complaints for violations of its Model Code of Conduct but has disposed of only a half of them, stirring up yet another hornet’s nest.
The poll panel did show it means business by de-registering as many as 400 fly-by-night political parties whose candidates had never thrown their hats into the poll ring, and by banning rabble-rousing big guns like Mayawati, Maneka Gandhi, Azam Khan, Yogi Adityanath and Pragya Thakur from their cacophonic campaigning for a few days in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections being seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The ECI cracked the whip only after the Supreme Court rebuked it for failing to use its powers against candidates and campaigners violating the election code. What has, however, raised countless questions about its impartiality and ability to act fairly and independently is its lackadaisical attitude toward petitions against Modi and subsequent clean chits given to the spitfire spellbinder in as many as five cases.
The commission almost proved that it wanted to curry favour with the Prime Minister by suspending a Karnataka-cadre Muslim IAS officer for searching Modi’s helicopter as part of his election duty but gave no explanation for the punishment. It also turned a blind eye to Modi’s address to the nation during campaigning about the anti-satellite missile, saying his speech was aired only by private TV stations and not by public broadcaster Doordarshan.
What’s more, the ECI had asked parties to refrain from mentioning defence personnel for political propaganda but it remained a mute spectator when Modi appealed to first-time electors to dedicate their vote to soldiers. The Congress also demanded action against the shrewd strategist with impressive oratory skills for slandering former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi branding him ‘most corrupt’ but the commission brushed aside the complaint.
Well, gone are the days when India had a fearless, no-nonsense chief election commissioner like T.N. Seshan who would scare the living daylights out of unruly strange bedfellows by cancelling their elections without batting an eyelid, and coming down hard on headstrong booth capturers as also devil-may-care trouble-makers at polling stations.
In other words, it is high time the ECI acted tough and asserted itself as, constitutionally, it has ample authority to call the shots. Also, some 40 electoral reforms await approval but at least the election commissioners, who are now appointed by the President on the advice of the government, should be chosen by a collegium comprising the Prime Minister, Leaders of the Opposition in both Houses and the Chief Justice of India.
This will ensure that the effective power to regulate the terms of the service conditions of election commissioners does not remain in the hands of the ruling party, and the ECI will no more be a paper tiger giving out just warnings and reprimands but will have extraordinary powers, indeed.