Weak Election Commission is a disaster for democracy

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, April 08: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has a point when she accuses the Election Commission of India (ECI) of dancing to the tunes of the NaMo government. This came after the ECI shunted out four police officers in West Bengal and the Andhra Pradesh chief secretary on Friday last.

She termed the move as “highly arbitrary, motivated and biased. We have every reason to believe that the decision of the Commission is at the behest of the ruling party at the Centre, i.e the BJP,” she wrote in a letter to the ECI.

Mamata’s hands are by no means clean, but the bigger point is that the Election Commission is becoming both toothless and spineless.

At this juncture, the ECI should remember a man called Tirunellai Narayana Iyer Seshan, TN Seshan for short. As the 10th Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India from 1990 to 1996, he put fear in politicians and officials as he implemented the Model Code of Conduct in both letter and spirit. He gave the ECI a big makeover and a new perspective.

For the first time, he was successful in breaking the muscle and money power in elections and never tolerated loose talk during campaigning. He filed cases and got candidates arrested for not abiding by the MCC. He was also tough on officials, suspending them for even swaying slightly towards candidates.

He was the first CEC to effectively implement the Model Code of Conduct and the rule of law. Before him, election commissioners were happy to just announce election schedules and results.

Today, it is back to the pre-Seshan era. Apart from announcing election schedules and results, the ECI routinely issues warnings which, at best, are just pieces of paper often crumbled and dust-binned by politicians immediately.

Had the ECI and the CEC been fair and strict like Seshan, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath would have been forced to resign for calling the Indian Army ‘Modi’s sena’. But he was only ‘strongly warned.’



The Congress spokesperson has a point: is the MCC now ‘Modi Code of Conduct’?

In the case of Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh, the ECI should have been more strident. Singh had openly called for the re-election of Narendra Modi as PM. Of course, the EC wrote to the President for action against Singh and the President forwarded the note to the government. There ended the matter!

But in the case of Andhra Pradesh, the ECI did wield its stick by booting out Chief Secretary Anil Chandra Punetha for defying its orders transferring Intelligence DG AB Venkateswara Rao. Rao was transferred and relieved of all poll-related duties on March 26, following complaints from the YSR Congress that he was acting in a biased manner favouring the ruling TDP. The SPs of Kadapa and Srikakulam too were shunted out along with him.

That night, Punetha issued a GO complying with the ECI orders, but the next afternoon, he issued another GO cancelling the transfer of the intelligence DG.

Politicians and officials no longer fear the ECI. The EC sent a missive to Air India for issuing boarding passes with Modi’s pictures on them. Air India did not even care to reply. Finally, the ECI ended up  “conveying its displeasure” to Air India’s chairman.

Similarly, the ECI pulled up the Indian Railways for using paper cups with Modi propaganda on them. The Railways, like its late-running trains, took its own time to withdraw the cups.

More shocking, a TV channel called NaMo starts broadcasting without the needed permits. Instead of getting it shut down, the ECI has just sought an explanation from the I&B ministry. Like in other cases, this too shall pass.

The Election Commission of India is solely to be blamed for its lack of heft. The more teeth and spine it loses, the worse this country’s democracy becomes.

Courtesy: Team Yahoo India