Does Government Like to Keep the System Toothless?

SCENE 1:

A respectable Gandhian activist - Anna Hazare - proposes a good strong Lokpal Bill. Public immensely supports and media duly bats for. Government does much milling and grinding, makes the same stark blunt, presents in Parliament and ensures that it still doesn’t pass, probably not sure if the bill was harmless enough.

SCENE 2:

Elections are being held in five states. Election Commission does a great job. Motivates voters and ensures free and fair polling. Result, voter turnout is laudably higher than ever before. Huge amount of black money and liquor meant to be used for influencing the process seized timely. Model Code of Conduct strictly enforced. Politicians obviously perturbed.

The two scenes may not seem to be directly connected but an element of common intention is visibly present in both.

Perturbed with the strict code enforcement by Election Commission, politicians have started contemplating ways to curb down the powers of Election Commission. Same as the government’s Lokpal Bill which has been custom-made and modified as per the convenience of political strata. Former’s teeth are planned to be grinded while latter’s embryo is so designed that it may never grow up to have teeth. A silly question, why does the government like to make bodies so toothless?

While Lokpal Bill’s fate and strength remain doubtful the powers of Election Commission may soon meet a review by a group of people that represents the community severely affected by commission’s strict working – the politicians.

Reports are that in the seventh meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on corruption scheduled to start from February 22 the Union Legislative Secretary would make a presentation on the issue of giving statutory shape to executive instructions issued by the EC.

In simple words, it means the complaints pertaining to code violations will go out of the purview of the EC and would be covered by law and hence be tried in a court rather than being left to the discretion of the Election Commission, as is the case now. And the speed of our legal course is not hidden from anybody.

The GoM which will discuss the issue comprises of Home Minister P Chidambaram, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Defence Minister AK Antony, Law Minister M Veerappa Moily, HRD and Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, Fertilizer Minister M K Alagiri and Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi.

Incidentally, at the last meeting of the GoM held on September 30, Pranab Mukherjee had opined that the model code was ‘one of the biggest excuses to stall development projects’ and had accepted Law minister Salman Khurshid’s request to “flag this issue” and include it in the agenda for next meeting. Worth mentioning here, this GoM is headed by Pranab Mukherjee.

Ironically, Khurshid himself was recently making headlines for Code of conduct’ defiance and the tiff between the law minister and election commission reached the table of the president of India. Finally, Salman tendered his apologies, perhaps he is not.

Reportedly, top politicos are batting to build a consensus of all political parties and aim at passing the measures ‘conveniently’ in Parliament.

The 60-year-old commission, which was established in accordance with the Constitution to oversee, direct and control of the entire electoral process doesn’t seem to be much amused by the reports.

Reacting on the issue of shifting powers of the Commission to Judiciary, Chief Election Commissioner SY Qureshi has termed it as an attempt to curb the powers of the commission.

“Once courts get the power to adjudicate whether a politician has committed a breach, the matter will go on for years while the culprit will enjoy the fruits of power,” says the commissioner.

Political parties have been united in their abetment of the two major evils in India's electoral process - the large presence of candidates with criminal backgrounds and the blatant use of money power.

Despite the best attempts of strong Election Commissioners like TN Seshan, JM Lyngdoh and now Qureshi, the political class has managed to skip the measures to extensively clean the electoral process.

All that the Election Commission has been able to do, though with commendable efficacy, is to crack down on individual cases of violation of the model code of conduct and seize cash, alcohol and other items being used to bribe voters.

Applauding the job of Election Commission, MC Raj, founder of Campaign for Electoral Reforms in India (CERI), said “EC is doing a perfect job. Government should not at all subvert the working of Commission. Instead, the commission should be further empowered to make it even more effective.” Raj visited the states undergoing elections and kept a close watch on the Election Commission’s working.

CERI recently organized a National Conference of Campaign for Electoral Reforms in India. More than 250 delegates from 22 States of India participated in the conference.

Fact is that the system we are living and dealing with is nowhere near perfection. Instead of empowering and strengthening the bodies like CBI, Election Commission and Judiciary, if the government continues to weaken the already bleak system, how will the things ever change? How will India become a better place to be?