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Journalism of Courage
Large scale violence during the recent local body polls in rural Punjab and West Bengal underline the gross inadequacy of election administration across the country. If the common person, let alone the opposition party worker or leader, is to be humiliated and intimidated by the ruling party, then the ideal of a free and fair poll remains a distant dream, especially in elections administered by state governments.
Admittedly, elections administered by the central Election Commission do fare better, with the use of electronic voting machines EVMs and the deployment of central paramilitary forces. But it is difficult to accept that even here the common voter, often illiterate or semi-literate, is completely protected from abuses propagated by politicians.
Part of the problem is that the powers of the Election Commission are poorly defined by a few short paragraphs in the Constitution of India, the Representation of the People Act 1950 and its subsequent updates, together with case law as determined from time to time.
State Election Commissions are invariably grossly under-resourced. They are entirely dependent on the state government itself respecting the letter and spirit of the rules governing elections to urban and rural institutions. With almost all the staff administering these elections being state government employees, it8217;s all too easy for them to subvert the process to please their political masters.
In my assembly constituency, we have recently had to endure absent returning officers, drunk officials, presiding officers fleeing with ballot boxes, widespread stuffing of ballot boxes, wholesale deletion of voters from electoral lists, spurious rejection of nominations, all of which confirm beyond doubt the overt and covert collusion of the ruling party and electoral officials. An exercise in democracy it was not.
We need to provide the Election Commission of India with much greater resources to administer all elections in the country covered by the Representation of the People and Panchayati Raj statutes. There should be a separate cadre of officers recruited for and dedicated to the Election Commission.
The State Election Commissions need to be made directly subordinate to the Election Commission of India. Paramilitary forces need to be deployed for all elections, including state level elections. State Election Commissioners should originate from other states to reduce conflicts of interest. The preparation of electoral rolls should be a primary responsibility of the Election Commission, not one delegated to the states.
Yes, the enormities of the electoral processes will still demand assistance from deputed state employees, but with a larger Election Commission cadre these employees will be far less able to manipulate the process. Let the states depute the administrative employees but concurrently ensure that powers delegated to the district administration and observers are allocated to EC officials.
All returning officers for parliamentary and assembly elections should be officers from the Election Commission cadre. Deputed officials suspended or terminated by the Election Commission must not be reinstated unless cleared by the appellate process of the Commission or by the courts. This would ensure far greater respect of the rules by officials who may otherwise err due to inducement or political influence.
It is the need of the hour to invest in democracy, otherwise state administered elections will remain the farce that they are, reduced to the ruling party effectively enforcing its nominations, facilitated by pliant and corrupt officials. Requisite funding for the Election Commission is no longer an option, but a necessity.
The writer is a Congress MLA from Qila Raipur, Punjab jkqilaraipur.org
