The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : Remaining above the fray

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

Remaining above the fray

It is not often that the Election Commission of India is accused of partisanship. When the unusual charge of bias was made by L.V. Saptarishi, Special Observer for Bihar in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, and particularly after the issue was taken up by Lalu Prasad, it was appropriate that the Election Commission convened a formal meeting and came out with its response. While the Commission itself dismissed the charges as "scurrilous and baseless" and declared it was beneath its dignity to respond to them, Chief Election Commissioner T. S. Krishnamurthy denied that B. B. Tandon, who will succeed him as CEC, ever made any remarks against Yadavs as a community. What about the substantive charge that the re-poll in the whole of the Chapra constituency was uncalled for in the light of Mr. Saptarishi's report as observer, and that it had been ordered under pressure from the BJP-led Government and with an intent to teach Mr. Prasad a lesson? Mr. Krishnamurthy has asserted that it was a unanimous decision of the Commission, which also detailed the reasons. An observer's report is an important, but not the sole, element in the decision-making, and the Commission is within its rights to consider the entirety of material and information available to it and come to a conclusion different from the one suggested by the observer.

Over several general elections, the Election Commission has acquitted itself extremely well and may well come through the latest episode — similar charges were made when, in a moment of unexplained zeal, it sought to find out why the people were voting repeatedly for the CPI (M)-led Left Front in West Bengal but abandoned the exercise — with little damage to its credibility. By seeking to ensure that political parties in office do not misuse their position and that candidates keep their expenses in check, by modernising the electoral process with electronic voting machines and voter identity cards, and by devising procedures and vigilance mechanisms to check such practices as booth capturing, rigging, and impersonation, it has succeeded to a remarkable degree in reforming the world's largest democratic exercise. Yet alongside this success, the Commission has at times been overbearing in its ways — in the functioning of its observers, for instance, and in its interaction with governments and officials — and unrestrained in its quest for ever greater powers. The suggestion to vest in the Commission the power to disqualify candidates violating the model code of conduct carries with it the danger of arbitrary and uncontrolled use in an area that is best left to the judicial process. Again, its proposal that candidates against whom serious charges are framed should be disqualified runs contrary to the basic presumption of innocence. Purity of elections is no doubt a paramount virtue but it can be achieved without shortcuts that seem convenient at the moment, but offend the fundamental notions of the rule of law and fairness. In the light of the controversy triggered by the Bihar-related allegations, the Election Commission would do well to exercise moderation, self-restraint, and modesty so that its role as a constitutionally sanctioned authority remaining at all times above the fray is not compromised.

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