A full meeting of the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday projected unity and gave embattled Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar a breather after intense pressure on him to take a hike. The subsequent ECI statement ended with the claim that all decisions had the approval of the full Commission, a seemingly innocuous phrase, but, in context, indicated new realities. For, the three-member body appeared fractured from within, with indications that Kumar had taken unilateral decisions though the CEC is the first among equals in the poll body. The two other Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, had put some of their objections on record when the controversial special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was being designed. But people familiar with the ECI’s functioning wondered why the duo chose not to vote against the contentious elements as they were in a 2:1 majority.
Be that as it may, the ongoing tumult forced the ECI to announce a series of measures to ease the SIR, including doorstep verification for voters facing notices. The course correction came after damning reportage on policy divergence within the ECI and a whopping 13 crore voters in 20 states going unmapped citing logical discrepancies. The poll body also announced an independent audit of the software for ECINET, the national repository for electoral rolls, as ECINET is under fire for allegedly blocking access to authorised officials and mechanically throwing up logical discrepancies.
With the Congress leading the campaign for the CEC’s exit, Rahul Gandhi strategically aimed higher, urging Kumar to turn approver to implicate the powerful players behind the SIR disenfranchisement exercise. An INDIA bloc meeting called at the request of Mamata Banerjee on September 30 is expected to chalk out ways to escalate the campaign further.
As for the latest SIR reforms, they seem similar to the firefighting the government did following the nationwide outrage over the NEET-UG paper leak a few months ago. Yet the then-powerful education minister had to be sacrificed to contain the fallout. The big question is whether Saturday’s damage limitation exercise would be enough to rebuild institutional trust in the electoral body. Though the CEC enjoys strong constitutional protection in matters of tenure and removal, its credibility, neutrality and accountability under Kumar’s watch have come under the national glare like never before.
