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Journalism of Courage
Since T.N. Seshan, all chief election commissioners have flirted with a danger, and mostly succumbed. The danger is of arrogating unto themselves a high-voltage audibility that does their institution little service. Danger lies in assuming the hectoring tone of the irrefutable Inspector of All Electoral Things. Seshan set this trend, among other things. Even as his flamboyant exertions catapulted a once sleepy constitutional body into the national spotlight as a credible conductor and monitor of the poll process, he also left behind a legacy of institutional over-reach. It is this deeply mixed legacy that comes to the fore as Chief Election Commissioner T.S. Krishnamurthy swings into action on the eve of a round of assembly elections, and hands out a quote a day.
Only recently, the CEC had to effect something of a rhetorical rollback after his tough talk about the use of the U.C. Banerjee report during the election campaign in Bihar was roundly mocked by Laloo Prasad Yadav. More than the famed impudence of the RJD chief was on display in this episode. It was clear that the election monitor had strayed into terrain that lies outside its jurisdiction 8212; the CEC was putting out diktat he simply does not have powers to enforce. The model code of conduct is a constraint more normative than legal. Undeterred, the CEC then thought it fit to revive an old idea whose time has never come. Several years ago, then CEC M.S. Gill actively promoted the proposal that governments in poll-bound states must resign before elections are held. Perhaps the finance minister and home minister could continue, adds Krishnamurthy now, expressing his 8216;8216;personal8217;8217; views to the media. This is uncalled-for. It is true that incumbent governments have been known to manipulate state resources at their disposal to get a headstart in the electoral race. But in the last five decades and more, the country8217;s electoral system, its checks and balances, have demonstrated enough resilience to make such proposals seem unnecessary, and actually alarmist. Arguably, India has some distance to cover in order that the rituals of electoral democracy link up with the routines of governance. But that India conducts one of the fairest and free-est polls, on a dauntingly large and complex scale, is undeniable.
