A review of Election Commission of India and its impact on Indian polity since its inception until the 2014 general elections. It examines the role of election commission and identifies faultlines that have emerged in Indian politics and their relationship with election commission
6th sem cpc notes for 6th semester students samjhe. Padhlo bhai
Election Commission of India: The gadfly of Indian politics
1. ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA
The Gadfly of Indian Politics
Sachin Tiwari | NLSIU | August, 2015
Courtesy: India Post
2. “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
5. 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
6. EC - A Constitutional Body
Key words –
• Superintendence
• Direction
• Control
of the entire process – “conduct elections”
(the phrase gives sweeping powers to EC)
7. • 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
8. • 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
9. 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
10. 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
11. Sukumar Sen (L) India’s first election commissioner with P S Subramaniam,
Courtesy: Caravan Magazine
12. 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
13. T N Seshan, former election commissioner, 1990-96
14. 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
20. 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
21. 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
22. 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
23. 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
