Nobody should be fooled by the Congress’s contention that the party’s reported move to confer statutory status to the Model Code of Conduct is driven by its desire to “reform” the electoral laws. Of all the areas in our electoral system that are crying to be reformed, if the Congress has decided to identify the code of conduct as deserving immediate attention, it has done so with the sparsely disguised intention of clipping the wings of the Election Commission of India which has recently ‘dared’ to pull up the party’s senior leaders for violating the code. Union Minister for Law and Justice Salman Khurshid and Union Minister for Steel Beni Prasad Verma have, during the ongoing Assembly poll campaign in Uttar Pradesh, been hauled up by the Election Commission for flouting the code when they brazenly promised Muslim voters they would introduce reservation in jobs and educational institutions for them. These leaders have had to sheepishly issue clarifications and apologise to the commission after initially striking a belligerent posture. An election officer had stopped Robert Vadra’s motorcycle rally in Amethi earlier this month on the charge that the latter had violated the model code. A repeatedly embarrassed Congress, running short of excuses every time the Election Commission has demanded a reply for the shenanigans of its senior leaders, appears to have finally run out of patience and decided to crack the whip — not on the violators of the code but the poll panel. The Congress’s game plan is to wrench the Model Code of Conduct out of the Election Commission’s grip. Once the code gets a statutory status, the poll panel will have no say over alleged violations since the complainants will then have to approach the courts with their grievances. How speedily such grievances will be redressed does not merit elaboration. But the Congress could not be less bothered by such delays, simply because delay is what it wants in action against its leaders as it goes about dividing the electorate along caste and communal lines during election campaigns. An agenda note which is said to have been circulated for the Group of Ministers on corruption, reportedly says that the Legislative Secretary would make a presentation on the need to pull the administration of the Model Code of Conduct out of the Election Commission’s portfolio. Given this backdrop, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari’s unsolicited advice to the Election Commission to cooperate in its own devaluation by “revisiting” the status quo of having the model code under its jurisdiction is akin to adding insult to the commission’s injury.
Having said that, the Election Commission too has not endeared itself to the people by the supine manner in which it has dealt with cases of violations so far. It has quietly filed and forgotten the letters of apology from political leaders. After an outburst of anger — leading many observers to believe that the commission had finally begun to mean business — over repeated violations of the code by Mr Khurshid, during which it even complained to the President in writing against the Law Minister, the Election Commission has meekly closed the chapter after he ‘apologised’. This pusillanimity is in stark contrast to the extreme stand it took in ordering that all statues of elephants and Ms Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh should be shrouded to ensure a “level playing field”. Strangely, the commission has let off Congress leaders who have ensured there is no level playing field!
