Two cheers for the Election Commission (EC) of India for gathering the courage to disallow the ruling party from taking out ‘Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra’ in five poll-bound states and one constituency in Nagaland.
The EC also deserves an applause for proscribing the use of the loaded term “rath prabharis” as the nomenclature of in-service government employees sought to be dubiously drafted for the “showcasing and celebration” of the assumed success of government policies.
But here is the point: Do Union government service conduct rules, that lay down what employees of the executive may or may not say or do while in service, permit their politicisation on behalf of the powers-that-be?
Think back to how an earlier chief executive of the nation, as puissant as the current one, was disqualified from the right to contest an election for six years for the smallest of transgressions: a government official who, despite having resigned from his post, helped fix a microphone at one of her public rallies.
Peanuts, wouldn’t you say, next to what the present dispensation calls upon in-service officers to do without the least qualm.
Also read: IAS Officers as Rath Prabharis is ‘Not Just Unethical But Illegal’: Ex-Civil Servant EAS Sarma
To reiterate: these officers are not being asked simply to survey the good or bad implementation of government policies; they are tasked to “showcase” and “celebrate” the same – a political job that rightfully belongs to party satraps in charge of propagation.
The enormity of the systemic transgression of what the government intends with respect to in-service officers thus is the root offence, and one that must draw the EC’s ire much more than just the taking out of the yatra or using a particular nomenclature for the official propagandists-to-be, bad as those offences are.
Using Ram in Electioneering
And, then, there is another even more deeply worrying and questionable breach of maryada (rules of conduct) that the honourable EC needs to call out without hesitation.
This pertains to the brazen use of posters and hoardings in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan depicting the new Ram temple building in Ayodhya next to the ubiquitous picture of who else but the prime minister.
The breach does not comprise merely the blatant misuse of religion for political purposes but also the breach of what we are told Ram stood for – namely his commitment to maryada and placing personal ethics above state power.
The constitutional rules of the political life of our democracy do not permit the use of religion in pursuing political goals.
Those who still draw their breath as citizens from the constitutional regime must emphasise that foundational tenet the more it is sought to be subverted by an autocratic order.
And, in the case of Ram, Bharat proudly showcases a deity who put aside his right to state power in order to follow maryada by deferring to the self-regarding wishes of a step-mother to install her own son as king.
Also read: ‘Rath Prabhari’ Move Illegal As It Is Wholesale Politicisation of Civil Services: EAS Sarma
What an apostasy, therefore, to use Ram – who gave up state power for a higher, selfless ideal – for exactly the contrary purpose of acquiring state power by any means whatsoever.
Clearly, the EC must feel the canny abuse of this breach of the rules of the game, both in the prohibited misuse of religion and in rubbishing what Ram actually exemplified – the abjuration of political power in favour of an ethical principle.
And how, one may ask, can the BJP appropriate Ram to its own lowly objectives when it also claims that everyone in Bharat venerates Ram not for assuming state power but giving it up?
It is time, therefore, for the EC to work towards earning a third cheer by prohibiting both the misuse of government servants for “showcasing and celebrating” the success (sic) of government schemes, as well as prohibiting the irreligious deployment of Ram.
Should the EC rise to the occasion, a truly game-changing blow would be struck to bolster a democracy which everyday totters and unravels at key constitutional injunctions.
So let the EC remember that doyen of Election Commissioners, the late T.N.Seshan, and do the right and proper.
In doing so, they will not but earn a place next to that legendary defender of the constitutional order – a maryada which alone legitimates the republic.
Badri Raina taught at Delhi University.
