When a member of the Election Commission of India (ECI) who is in line to become the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) suddenly puts in his papers, it does sound odd. Particularly when it happens just before the general elections schedule is to be announced. Bureaucrats have skins thicker than those of Kaziranga’s rhinos. Yet, Election Commissioner Arun Goel sent his resignation letter to President Droupadi Murmu on March 8 without copying it to his boss, CEC Rajiv Kumar.
With three more years left in the poll body, he led the succession queue as the CEC after Rajiv Kumar’s retirement in February next year. While Goel politely attributed his departure to a personal decision, his peer group suggested he had no health issues. Whether or not he had differences with the establishment is not known but the fact remains that the IAS officer from the Punjab cadre was hand-picked by them during his induction.
His tenure began rather controversially in November 2022 as a Constitution bench of the Supreme Court had made sharp observations about how he was picked—at the pace of a bullet train in just a day. It went on to inject the Chief Justice of India into the EC selection committee to end its arbitrary functioning. Months later, the government wrested back control by amending the law to show the CJI the door.
The three-member selection panel now comprises the prime minister as its chairperson; the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha as a member; and a Union cabinet minister nominated by the PM as the second member. Goel’s exit reduced the three-member ECI to a single-member body at present as his colleague Anup Chandra Pandey retired in February. It’s not yet clear whether he can be compared with his gutsy predecessor Ashok Lavasa who paid the price for issuing dissent notes on various model code violation decisions taken by the ECI during the last Lok Sabha polls.
With the establishment having two votes in the selection committee, its pick will be final in filling up the two ECI vacancies. It can either go for spineless babus or do the right thing by selecting upright officers with impeccable public stature.
For context, Justice Krishna Iyer predated the collegium system but lifted the judiciary through his sheer brilliance. That’s the level of ability the country needs in people occupying the highest constitutional posts of the land. Anything less would be a disservice to democracy.