oppn parties Election Commission Needs To Clean Up Its Act

News Snippets

  • India will fast-track deployment of 52 defence surveillance satellites
  • In a first, Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai helps patients draw up living will
  • Calcutta HC says that an arrest warrant cannot be issued against an accused who is on anticipatory bail, and if that person is arrested, he or she must be released as per the conditions of the anticipatory bail
  • Monsoon covers entire India 9 days ahead of schedule
  • Maharashtra government scraps order making Hindi the 3rd language in state schools after protests by civil society and opposition
  • A government report says that 64.3% of the population is now under the social security net, up from only 22% in 2016
  • The finance ministry has asked PSB to look at ways to monetise their investment in subsidiaries, by listing them on the stock exchanges
  • After auditor flags overlimit expenses, Karnataka Bank MD & CEO S Hari Hara Sarma and ED Sekhar Rao resign
  • Rosneft likely to sell its stake in Nayara Energy to RIL
  • Ola junks commission-based income model, opts for a daily flat fee from drivers with the hope of attracting more drivers to its platform
  • Torrent Pharma will acquire a controlling stake in JB Chem for Rs 18000cr by buying 46.4% from US fund KKR and another 26% from the public by making an open offer
  • Speculation persists over Jasprit Bumrah making the playing 11 in the second Test against England starting July 2
  • FIH Pro hockey: Indian women slump to their 8th successive loss as they lose to China 2-3
  • US Open BWF Super 300 badminaton: Ayush Shetty wins his first BWF world title by beating Canadian Brian Young 21-18,21-13 but Tanvi Sharma lost in the finals to Beiwwwan Zhang 11-21, 21-16, 10-21
  • R Praggananda wins Tashkent meet, become number 1 chess player in India with FIDE rating of 2799
The SIT formed to probe law college gang-rape in Kolkata has collected the hockey stick used to hit the victim and other rape evidence from the coolege campus /////// Rath Yatra stampede in Puri kills 3
oppn parties
Election Commission Needs To Clean Up Its Act

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2019-05-20 16:54:03

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
The news about differences in the Election Commission (EC) over the action taken in respect of complaints of violations of model code of conduct (MCC) against Prime Minister Modi and Amit Shah are both disconcerting and disturbing. While Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora has sought to underplay the same by saying that differences will always exist as election commissioners are not expected to be “clones” of each other, the very fact that Commissioner Ashok Lavasa’s dissenting remarks were not recorded in the final order in one case is a serious deviation from the past and needs to be condemned. Matters came to such a pass that Lavasa subsequently recused himself from meetings called to discuss violations of the MCC.

It is no one’s case that all three commissioners should think in the same manner on all issues. They are not programmed robots. Bodies with multiple members are designed to encourage healthy debate and diversity of opinion on every issue. But the bottom line is that all such opinions should be recorded in the final orders of the body to let the public know how and why the final decision was arrived at. If Ashok Lavasa thought the EC was being too lenient on PM Modi and Amit Shah, he must have had his reasons. The public has the right to know the same.

The EC is an independent body tasked with conducting free and fair elections. A free and fair election does not only mean one that is free from instances of rigging or other malpractices. It also means that all contestants are provided equal opportunity in all respects. Since opponents will always complain against each other on the smallest of issues, it is not expected that the EC will wield the rod every time. But the manner in which the EC first informed the Supreme Court that it was helpless and then got cracking after the court indicated that it might examine its powers shows that the EC was either not aware of its own powers or was unwilling use them for some reason. In these elections, an impression has been created that the EC was lenient with Modi and Shah. It is not good for the independence of the body.