A Chink in the Edifice

Democracy itself, to a great extent, is allowed to rest in the hands of the Election Commission

- Aditya Sondhi IS A SENIOR ADVOCATE, SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

IN my book Poles Apart: The Military and Democracy in India and Pakistan I argue that while the army in Pakistan has cramped (even usurped) democratic space, India has been fortunate to have had a military that 'kept out' and enabled democratic institutions to grow. The Election Commission of India (EC) is central to that democratic dividend we have earned and which gift horse we cannot look in the mouth. To then find an EC that is perceptibly biased, or at the very least, not pro-voter, is a chink in the edifice. If elections are not to be representative, plural and participatory, then democracy is condemned to remain the 'top dressing' that Dr Ambedkar predicted it would be. Elections are, a crusade for social justice. They empower us before they empower the elected. And here, the EC as a facilitator-ombudsman cannot help but be an empathetic, problem-solving machine.

From personal experience, I can say that finding your name on the voters' list is a game of chance. One may have voted in the state election only to find their name missing in the list for the general election a few months later or having one's voter ID unilaterally cancelled. The actual voting process itself is usually seamless and the EC ought to be credited for conducting polls in the remotest parts of the country.

But when schemes such as the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar look at 'cleansing' voter lists and making the right to vote a mirage, then institutional credibility is at stake.