ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA The Gadfly of Indian Politics Sachin Tiwari | NLSIU | August, 2015

Courtesy: India Post

“gadfly of Indian politics”

former Chief Election Commissioner of India J.M. Lyngdoh in a TV program.

HardTalk, BBC India (2003)

Gadfly: Any of various large flies that annoy livestock

1952 176 million people 16,500 clerks 56,000 presiding officers 224,000 polling stations Over 85% Indians unlettered

1952 176 million people 16,500 clerks 56,000 presiding officers 224,000 polling stations Over 85% Indians unlettered

2014

814 million people 4 million staff 930,000 polling stations Over 65% Indians literate

EC - A Constitutional Body

Key words –

• Superintendence

• Direction

• Control

of the entire process – “conduct elections” (the phrase gives sweeping powers to EC)

• 25 January 1950

• EC - to insulate politics from elections.

• Originates from the Article 324 of the Constitution of India (Constitutional debates: K M Munshi on the need and use of EC, Ambedkar on fair elections as fundamental right, autonomy of EC & power of EC)

• EC is setting - ground rules for political competition

Origin: EC of India

• Elections - supreme political act (Pastor)

• Of 20 advanced industrialized democracies, the governments - not independent commissions - are responsible for conducting elections in 15 or 75% (Pastor)

• "Independent election commissions are thought desirable for carrying out low-discretion, low-controversy activities." (Elmendorf, 2006)

Scholarship on Elections & EC

Contextualizing EC of India

• Costa Rica and India form their ECs after WW2

• UK - PPERA, 2000 created independent election agency

• USA - FEC established in 1974 only after Watergate NOT to conduct elections but only to administer and enforce campaign finance laws . Election Agency Commission (EAC) an advisory and grant making body under Help America Vote Act, 2002

• Europe – after fall of Berlin wall. mostly a part of judiciary

• Latin America – shows high variation in independence of ECs

Functions of EC

• Conduct elections

• Advisory • President & Governors on matter of disqualification of sitting members of Parliament and of

State legislatures

• Quasi- judicial • registration of political parties

Sukumar Sen (L) India’s first election commissioner with P S Subramaniam, Courtesy: Caravan Magazine

1952: Sukumar Sen’s problem

A second problem was social rather than geographical:

the diffidence of many women in northern India to give their own names, instead of which they wished to register themselves as A’s mother or B’s wife. Sukumar Sen was outraged by this practice, a

‘curious senseless relic of the past’, and directed his officials to correct the rolls by inserting the names of the women ‘in the place of mere

descriptions of such voters’.

Source: India After Gandhi, Ram Guha

T N Seshan, former election commissioner, 1990-96

1991: T N Seshan’s problem

Transparent, free and fair elections

Chief Election Commissioner T. N. Seshan creates controversy by rushing in where his predecessors feared to tread. Like a He-Man he

has waved the constitutional sword at the masters of the political universe whenever questioned and shouted: "I have the power."

Source: India Today, Cover Story, June 15, 1991

Technology & Process

1952 Ballot Boxes

2014 Electronic Voting Machine (EVM)

Revising the roll

Jansangh’s Campaign, 1952, Courtesy: Guru Prasad

Campaigns THEN

Campaigns NOW

Analysis : Faultlines

• Candidates spend far in excess (than what they should)

• Criminalization of politics (11 MLAs in UP & 13 in Bihar, 2014)

• Paid News

• Changing (or already altered?) nature of Indian politics

Analysis: Electoral Reforms & EC’s Role

• model code of conduct - first tried in GE 1971

• check criminalization of politics (UP, Bihar)

• use of technology (EVMs in 1982 Kerala)

• Limit on poll expenses

• EC- SCI Link

Analysis – Some observations

• ECs can and sometimes do serve as agents of election law reform, (questions about how and why this is so- and whether it should be so - merit academic inquiry.) (Elmendorf, 2006)

• scholarship concerning the roles of independent commissions in electoral reforms remains scarce. (Elmendorf, 2006)

• EC of India is a body which is ably directing, conducting and managing elections in India. this is where it has proven itself to be the best.

• CECs as individuals made it work effectively, also because of the powers that the EC woke up to under Seshan

• EC of India has proven very high level of administrative competence

References

• Book - The Self-restraining State: Power and Accountability in New Democracies

• Research Paper – Christopher Elmendorf. Election Commissions and Electoral Reform: An Overview. Election Law Journal

• Database: IndiaKanoon, TN Seshan vs Union of India (1995)

• Newspaper reports on general elections and general elections

• Videotapes:

T N Seshan, public address

M Lyngdoh, HardTalk, BBC India

M S Gill, interview, GeoTV, Pakistan

Naveen Chawla, Conversation, University of Chicago

Nazeem Zaidi, public address

tiwarisac@gmail.com

@tiwarisac