Flourishing institution
HARISH KHARE
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The men at Nirvachan Sadan are tested election after election but the institution survives
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THE MIRACLE OF DEMOCRACY: T.S. Krishnamurthy; HarperCollins Publishers, A-53, Sector 57, Noida, Uttar Pradesh-201301. Rs. 395.
On April 20 this year, a bizarre spectacle got enacted in front of the Nirvachan Sadan, the site of the Election Commission of India. That day the outgoing Chief Election Commissioner and his two colleagues allowed themselves to be persuaded to step outside the building and to lock up raised arms — a la politicos — for the benefit of the cameras. This not-so-charming a cameo inadvertently showcased that intoxicating aura of self-importance and grandiosity that comes to possess anyone and everyone who gets (or rather manoeuvres to get) appointed to the Commission. The fever lasts five years.
Hangover
In T.S. Krishnamurthy’s case it has perhaps lingered a little longer. The book stems from that hangover. On the second page itself this former CEC recounts pleasantly how, in July 2008, a porter at the Delhi Airport complimented him for conducting the first fair and free elections in Bihar in February 2005. And, from this, he infers a non sequitur: “This is ample proof that democracy is miraculously surviving in India in spite of many obstacles.”
The raison d’etre of the book never becomes clear. It is not a memoir of the author’s years at the Election Commission; that in fact would have been a perfectly legitimate and much-desired addition to the public understanding of how this key democratic institution functioned. Instead, for much of the time the author can be described as reinventing the democratic wheel. Distant “authorities” like George Bernard Shaw, Winston Churchill, Gunnar Mrydal, and Alan Greenspan are quoted to lend credibility to an otherwise uninspiring reflection on democracy and its imperfections in India.
Pressures
However, Krishnamurthy redeems himself somewhat when he begins to speak from his only position of strength: his stint at the Nirvachan Sadan. He contests the various charges of over-reach against the Commission or even its alleged lack of neutrality. He argues for arming the Commission with powers to enforce the model code of conduct.
He is able to give the reader some idea of the pressures and counter-pressures faced by the three wise men at Nirvachan Sadan. With becoming dignity he reveals how he kept quiet even after receiving “written threats” from the “functionaries of the two leading political parties in Tamil Nadu” when he was the CEC.
To the extent democracy is all about struggle over power, the arrangements and processes that are put in place to regulate that struggle are invariably questioned; and, it is also natural that those who preside over those arrangements come under intense scrutiny. But there is a delicious anomaly here. Those who get appointed to the Commission come to the Nirvachan Sadan at the fag end of a long bureaucratic career, invariably riddled with compromises and connections, and they suddenly find themselves in a position where they are required to live out autonomous roles, having to arbitrate and adjudicate among the very people who till the other day were their political masters. The transition is never complete; but the institutional conventions and democratic expectations keep the Commissioners away from temptations, if not from institutional arrogance.
Suggestions
It is in this context that Krishnamurthy makes a number of useful suggestions. In particular, he warns against the periodic speculation that the government of the day was contemplating increasing the number of Commissioners. “I feel it is aimed at thwarting the independent functioning of the Commission,” he concludes presciently. The former CEC also favours wider consultation — including with the Opposition — prior to appointment of the Commissioners. And, though he does not refer to the recent controversy at the Nirvachan Sadan over N. Gopalaswamy’s understanding of his powers, as CEC, vis-À-vis the other two Commissioners, Krishnamurthy wants “the disparity” between the CEC and other Commissioners sorted out in the matter of their removal from office.
Again, Krishnamurthy thoughtfully expresses against the post-retirement assignments or political associations for the Commissioners. The matter has acquired a certain criticality after M.S. Gill, a former CEC, was appointed last year as a minister in the Manmohan Singh government. Every time a former CEC opts for a position that carries with it an obvious suggestion of political partisanship, the neutrality of the entire Commission comes under a cloud.
India remains a feudal society, with a vast majority of people still to internalise the constraints and restraints of a democratic order. Anyone enforcing laws and regulations uniformly does not win any popularity contest. The Election Commissioners invariably find themselves subjected to tremendous stress because the Commission is obliged to ensure a level playing field for the ultimate test of a democracy — an orderly and lawful transfer of power.
Distressing
Krishnamurthy notes ruefully “Political parties have often faulted the Election Commission’s role as umpire, but what is distressing is the aggressive stance adopted by some of them. Of late, parties in Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, U.P., and West Bengal have been vociferous in their criticism of the Commission. The personal attacks on Election Commissioners have gone beyond decency and decorum.”
Such public expressions of doubts about the neutrality of the Commission put an extra onus on the Commissioners to conduct themselves most scrupulously as well as transparently. The recent Gopalaswamy-Navin Chawla standoff was most unhelpful.
An abiding obligation dwells in those inside the Commission to guard the very institutional mechanism that deepens the electoral process’ integrity. As Krishnamurthy’s book confirms, the men at Nirvachan Sadan are tested election after election but happily enough, the institution survives and flourishes.
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