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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | The Election Commission of India was built on public trust -Narayani Basu

The Election Commission of India was built on public trust -Narayani Basu

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published Published on Mar 22, 2021   modified Modified on Mar 22, 2021

-The Indian Express

Amid recent questions about the ECI’s autonomy, a look at how the body has steered India’s electoral history.

On March 15, the Citizens’ Commission on Elections (CCE), chaired by retired Supreme Court judge Madan B Lokur, which examines critical aspects of conducting elections, released the second part of its report. Titled “An Inquiry into India’s Election System,” the report evaluated the integrity and inclusiveness of the electoral rolls, increasing criminalisation, the use of financial power to create an economic oligarchy, compliance with the model code of conduct, the role of media, particularly social media and the overall electoral process.

Its overall verdict: A damning indictment of the autonomy of the Election Commission of India.

Flagging 2019 as the flashpoint from whence “grave doubts” were raised about the freedom and fairness of India’s general elections — the world’s largest democratic exercise — the CCE alleged that the ECI was drifting away from Article 324, which gives the Commission plenipotentiary powers to steer the electoral process.

This is a far cry from the values with which the watchdog body was established in 1950. In 1952, free India went to the polls for the first time, choosing to dive straight into universal adult suffrage. Critics muttered loudly about gambles, but the man who designed the system was more restrained, terming the first general elections as an “experiment in democracy.” A cautious Bengali and a gold medallist in mathematics, Sukumar Sen confronted a task that would make any man quake. As India’s first Chief Election Commissioner, he had to construct the electoral framework from scratch. This meant ensuring that 176 million citizens, nearly 85 per cent of whom were illiterate, would have a say in the democratic effort. Logistically speaking, it meant choosing symbols for political parties and sites for polling stations; it meant introducing indelible ink to prevent fraud and plotting ways to cover every inch of India’s vast, often difficult terrain. It also meant working to reduce the erasure of women and educating the public about the importance of their votes.

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The Indian Express, 22 March, 2021, https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/election-commission-of-india-autonomy-powers-7238870/


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