Congress MP KC Venugopal said there is no umpire to conduct free and fair elections in India now. He was referring to several ways in which the elections commission has been compromised. This includes the removal of the Chief Justice of India from the selection committee to choose the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), rendering immunity to the Election Commission against their conduct in courts across India.
Venugopal recalled former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi's statement calling the SIR exercise an 'epic exclusion.' He was speaking on the electoral reforms debate in the Lok Sabha on the second day of the discussion on December 10.