The resignation of election commissioner (EC) Arun Goel on March 9, just a few days before the announcement of the general elections, is unprecedented in the history of our republic. His tenure was to end in 2027 and he would have taken over as chief election commissioner (CEC) in due course.
According to unattributed reports, he resigned (or was prevailed upon to quit) because of serious differences with Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar.
Ashok Lavasa’s resignation
In 2018, Ashok Lavasa was appointed an EC. He gave several dissenting notes on the issue of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah’s alleged infringement of the campaigning rules the 2019 election. He resigned in August 2020 and went on to join the Asian Development Bank as vice president, a position normally filled with government backing.
Divya Trivedi’s article, “Ashok Lavasa: Targeting a dissenter” published in Frontline on October 10, 2019, noted with anguish that Lavasa, who was the sole EC who did not agree to give a clean chit to Modi and Shah for their acts of commission and omission during the election campaign, “seemed to be paying the price for his dissent”.
It then noted that investigations were initiated against five members of his family by the Income Tax Department. He was also one of those targeted with Pegasus spyware.
It is extraordinary that two ECs have resigned during Modi’s tenure, indicating in no uncertain terms that all is not well with a body which is mandated to conduct free and fair elections – which in turn have been held by the Supreme Court to be part of the constitution’s basic structure.
The Election Commission commanded high respect and admiration from within India and abroad and during its golden jubilee celebrations in 2000, former President K.R. Narayanan quoted a public opinion poll according to which people rated the Election Commission very highly – far ahead of the police, the bureaucracy, political parties, the Union government, local self government and even the judiciary.
Apprehensions expressed in Constituent Assembly
Arun Goel’s resignation and Lavasa’s earlier resignation are part of the unmistakable trend of the decline and fall of the high benchmarks of the Election Commission’s impartiality.
Sadly, with retrospect, the alarming collapse of the commission’s independence reflects apprehensions of two distinguished members of the Constituent Assembly, Shibban Lal Saxena and Hriday Nath Kunzru, as well as of B.R. Ambedkar, chairman of the drafting committee.
On June 15, 1949, during the discussion on Article 289 in the draft constitution, which concerned the Election Commission, Saxena presciently but poignantly said, “It is quite possible that some party in power who wants to win the next election may appoint a staunch party man as chief commissioner.”
He then with sadness could foresee a period in the evolution of our country when there might not be another prime minister like Jawaharlal Nehru, who was known for his independence and impartiality, and when someone getting elected to that office might abuse their power and authority by appointing an unworthy EC, subverting the electoral process and the very foundation of democracy.
A day later, on June 16, Kunzru in his speech warned that if the electoral machinery would become defective, inefficient or be run by people of doubtful integrity, “democracy will be poisoned at the source”.
He cautioned that instead of learning how the judicious use of their vote can reform the administration, people should not end up learning how to get what they want through intrigue and unfair means.
Ambedkar’s apprehensions
Ambedkar feared that the Election Commission might “come under the thumb of the executive” in the absence of any provision in the constitution preventing the government of the day from appointing unworthy people to the poll body.
The Supreme Court in its order of March 2023 reiterated those apprehensions when it said that to prevent the Election Commission from becoming “a servile commission”, a committee consisting of the prime minister, the Chief Justice of India and the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha or the leader of the opposition party with the largest number of MPs should recommend candidates for appointment to the poll body.
Tragically, the Modi regime’s law replaced the Chief Justice with a Union minister to be chosen by the prime minister. The resignations of two ECs and the alteration of the Supreme Court’s order during the Modi regime form part of the alarming pattern of the decline of our democracy’s institutions.
S.N. Sahu served as an officer on special duty to former President K.R. Narayanan.
