An exasperated Congress president Rahul Gandhi last week called the poll panel “completely biased” against the Opposition. He said that when it comes to the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Commission toes the straight line, but when it comes to the Opposition, it becomes biased. In a media interaction he even threatened the Commission officials with “consequences” in the future for being biased.

Rahul Gandhi is not the only leader who has grouse against the EC. There are other Opposition leaders like Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, BSP supremo Mayawati, Delhi chief minister and AAP boss Arvind Kejriwal and many other opposition leaders who have complained against the EC’s bias towards the ruling party leaders. The ruling BJP also has been giving complaints against other parties.

Recently, in an unprecedented manner a group of 66 former bureaucrats had written to President Ramnath Kovind expressing concern over what they called the questionable functioning of the Commission, requesting him to intervene to ensure free and fair polls. They include former national security adviser Shivshankar Menon, super cop Julio Ribeiro and former Lt Governor Najeeb Jung.

Why is the Commission is facing such charges? Is the Commission so helpless as it pleaded in the Supreme Court recently that it lacked the powers to crack the whip? The court not only blasted the Commission but also reminded that it had adequate authority to enforce the Model Code of Conduct under Article 324 of the Constitution. Even its decision to ban campaign of Union Minister Maneka Gandhi, Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan for specific hours for violating Model Code of Conduct came only after the Supreme Court nudging.

But complaints about hate speeches have been piling up even after that. Congress claims that they have given more than 37 representations — ten of them against the Prime Minister — to the ECI on violation of Model Code of Conduct, but the Commission was not acting. It was only after the Congress M.P. Sushmita Dev approached the apex court, which directed the Commission to dispose of all complaints of the Congress immediately, that the EC has given clean chit to the Prime minister in six cases last week. Interestingly, Ashok Lavasa, one of the commissioners, had dissented on five of the decisions. The Congress has not given up and has gone to apex court on the orders once again alleging that the EC was partial to the ruling party.

Many political parties also have doubts about the electronic voting machines. On a petition from the opposition, the Supreme Court has asked for VVPATs from five EVM's per assembly constituency instead of one per constituency. The Commission maintains that the EVMs are foolproof and cannot be manipulated.

The EC has not been always been so timid. In 1989, Chief Election Commissioner VS Peri Sastri introduced wide-ranging electoral reforms, including reducing the voting age to 18 from 21. He also stood his ground on his principles, which prompted Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to make a multi-member panel to clip the powers of the chief election commissioner. Similarly, TN Seshan, in the early nineties, introduced a range of reforms including voter photo ID. He deployed the security forces to check booth capturing and voter intimidation. He earned the nickname of “Al Seshan” and punished those who flouted the model code and even recommended sacking two ministers to the Prime Minister Narasimha Rao for violating the code. There have been other successful CECs like Sukumar Sen, Peri Sastri and S.Y. Qureshi.

The question is has the EC played an impartial role in the current Lok Sabha polls? The opposition complains that it is not ensuring the rules of the game in order to ensure parity. For instance, eyebrows were raised when it suspended an IAS officer for checking the chopper of the prime minister in the course of his duty. Also income tax raids were being conducted only on the opposition leaders. It is nobody’s case that whatever the opposition wants the EC must comply but it should appear to have done justice. There is still time to send a signal that the EC is impartial and earn the trust of the opposition. This is the 17th General elections the EC is conducting and its performance has not always been uniform but it is a huge exercise to hold the elections peacefully and in a free and fair manner. No doubt poll reforms are required and the EC should be given more teeth but within the constraints the EC can certainly perform. (IPA Service)