The Iron in the Institutions

The Election Commission failing the test of democracy is a bad turn for our Republic

- By Harish Khare IS A DELHI-BASED SENIOR JOURNALIST AND PUBLIC COMMENTATOR

WISE voices over the centuries and across civilisations have warned us that it takes a society decades to build and sustain institutions, but these very carefully crafted and nurtured arrangements can be thoughtlessly damaged and destroyed within months and weeks.

It seems, unfortunately, we have entered an age of demolition and destruction of assiduously cultivated political and constitutional institutions in the democratic world. In the United States, one of the oldest formalised democracies, an arrogant president is running amok, undermining every single institutional setup.

We, in India, are having a tough time maintaining and respecting the integrity and autonomy of our institutions. All said and done, our rendezvous with democracy is only seven decades old, whereas our social and cultural ethos remains predicated on centuries-old feudal values and practices. In this context, it is worthwhile to revisit the most consequential leap of faith our founding fathers took when writing the Constitution—and, then, diligently observing its injunctions.

Consider these brief excerpts from Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's correspondence with his cabinet colleagues in 1953.

On April 24, he wrote a "My dear Balkrishna" letter to B.V. Keskar, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting. "I wonder if you know Parmanand Desai. He is Mahadev Desai's younger brother. He did well here and then at Sardar Patel's instance and my suggestion also, he went, I think, to America for a two-year course of training in diplomacy etc. When he came back, he was overage for the Foreign Service ...ultimately, we managed to put him in the Historical Division temporarily. After a year was over, we referred this matter to the Public Service Commission who expressed its resentment at anyone having been appointed without its previous consent. Subsequently, his case was put up to them in the normal course and they did not approve," it said.