The Election Commission has been at the receiving end of scathing attacks from the Opposition for being unjust in its decisions. The panel must quell all doubts over its ethics and uphold its reputation

Perhaps the Election Commission of India (EC) has never ever been under such scrutiny as it is today. The polarised campaign during the ongoing General Elections has put the spotlight firmly on the referee — the EC.  As an impartial watchdog, it is the responsibility of the electoral body to provide for a level-playing filed to all political parties. The perception that the EC has not been addressing Opposition complaints, in this case against the ruling party, has been doing the rounds.

An exasperated Congress president Rahul Gandhi called the poll panel “completely biased” against the Opposition last week. He said that when it comes to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the commission toes the straight line and when it comes to the Opposition, it becomes biased. During a media interaction, Rahul Gandhi even threatened EC officials with “consequences” in the future for being biased.

But Rahul Gandhi is not the only leader who has grouse against the EC. There are other Opposition leaders like Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal and many other leaders in the Opposition, who have complained against the EC’s bias towards the leaders of the ruling party. The BJP, too, has been lodging complaints against other parties to the EC.

Recently, in an unprecedented manner, a group of 66 former bureaucrats wrote to President Ram Nath Kovind, expressing concern over what they called the questionable functioning of the Commission, requesting him to intervene to ensure free and fair polls. The leaders included former National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon, supercop Julio Ribeiro and former Lt Governor Najeeb Jung.

Why is the EC facing such charges? Is the Commission so helpless that the Chief Election Commissioner recently pleaded helplessness in the Supreme Court, lamenting that he lacked the powers to crack the whip? The court not only blasted the Commission but also reminded it that it had adequate authority to enforce the Model Code of Conduct under Article 324 of the Constitution.

Even its decision to ban Union Minister Maneka Gandhi, Mayawati, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan from campaign for specific hours for violating Model Code of Conduct came only after the Supreme Court’s nudging.

Alas, even after the apex court pulling it up, the EC has maintained silence on the complaints launched by parties against alleged hate speeches, which have piled up all the more. The Congress claims that it has given more than 37 representations — ten against the Prime Minister — to the EC on violations of Model Code of Conduct but the Commission did not act. It was only after Congress MP Sushmita Dev approached the apex court, which directed the Commission to dispose of all complaints registered by the party immediately, that the EC gave a clean chit to the Prime minister in six cases last week.

Interestingly, Ashok Lavasa, one of the Commissioners, dissented on the decision. The Congress has not given up and has gone to the top court on the orders once again, alleging that the EC has been partial to the ruling party.

Many political parties have raised doubts about the functioning of the Electronic Voting Machines, too. The petition filed by 21 Opposition parties in the Supreme Court, for counting of at least 25 per cent EVM paper trail machines — instead of only five — in every Assembly segment has been rejected by the top court. On the other hand, the EC maintains that the EVMs are fool-proof and cannot be manipulated.

The EC has not always been so timid. In 1989, the then Chief Election Commissioner RVS Peri Sastri had introduced wide-ranging electoral reforms, including reducing the voting age to 18 from 21. He also stood his ground on his principles, which prompted the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to make a multi-member panel to clip the powers of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC).

Similarly, in the early 1990s, former CEC TN Seshan had introduced a number of reforms, including the issuance of voter IDs. He deployed the security forces to keep a check on booth capturing and voter intimidation. He earned the nickname of “Al-Seshan” and punished those who flouted the Model Code and even recommended the sacking two Ministers to the then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao for violating the code. There have been other successful CECs like Sukumar Sen and SY Quraishi.

The question, however is: Has the EC played an impartial role in the current Lok Sabha polls? The Opposition has complained that the electoral body is not ensuring the rules of the game in order to ensure parity. For instance, eyebrows were raised when it suspended an IAS officer for checking the chopper of the Prime Minister in the course of his duty. 

Also, income tax raids were being conducted only on Opposition leaders. It is nobody’s case that whatever the Opposition wants, the EC must comply, but it should appear to have done justice. There is still time to send a signal that the EC is impartial and it must earn the trust of the Opposition. The EC’s performance has not always been uniform but it is a huge exercise to hold the elections peacefully and in a free and fair manner. No doubt poll reforms are required and the EC should be given more teeth but within the constraints, the body can certainly perform.

(The writer is a senior political commentator and syndicated columnist)