Error on commission

Narendra Modi didn8217;t heckle the 8220;anti-Hindu8221; Election Commission after he won Gujarat. Lalu Yadav dropped his thesis on an 8220;upper caste8221; EC even though he lost Bihar. So why is the Left doing what two of our most aggressive political hecklers didn8217;t? The Left won Bengal in an election that even Mamata Banerjee couldn8217;t call unfair and by a margin that surprised everyone, including Left strategists. Whatever may have been the Marxists8217; grouse against the EC 8212; and in a rambunctious democracy disagreements are inevitable, sometimes necessary 8212; political common sense should have told them an offensive would bring them no dividends. The battle to make the EC a truly independent election watchdog took decades. Any political party that launches a sustained offensive 8212; as the Left is planning 8212; can only attract near-universal criticism.

The critique will be stronger because the Left is attacking the commissioners on grounds that have no basis in reason. There8217;s no earthly reason why retired commissioners shouldn8217;t contest polls. In a free country anyone not bound by public employment obligations should be able to participate in elections. To argue otherwise is, frankly, ridiculous. The point about monitoring EC expenditure is both disingenuous and dangerous. Disingenuous because in a government set-up where wasting money for populist and political fancies is routine, spending by the EC isn8217;t really the most important issue. The argument is dangerous because it gives politicians a handle to harass a statutory body tasked to monitor them. Unscrupulous politicians will find this a godsend. Does the Left want to help them?

More important is the question whether the Left8217;s anger against the EC is a reflection that India8217;s third largest political group, after the Congress and the BJP, hasn8217;t quite come to terms with the concept of institutional checks and balances. Whether what the Left has done in Bengal in terms of politically co-opting institutions is the model it wants for India? If the Left wants to rule India, as it surely does, it must know India doesn8217;t want that.