Well done, Election Commission! Three momentous elections can be recalled from the recent past, and the set of Assembly polls which have just ended (with the results expected Friday) sit right up there with those as fine examples of free, fair and transparent voting. Some time back T.N. Seshan, as chief election commissioner, showed us how proper elections can be conducted in India
even in situations regarded by most as extremely challenging. It was widely noted that under his stewardship elections in Bihar came through shiningly. The EC basically ensured that rules were scrupulously followed, with no quarter given to even the most powerful politicians who had grown used to having their way. The people of Bihar still recall that particular election. Next in chronology come the state elections conducted in Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir under the leadership of James Michael Lyngdoh. Mr Lyngdoh did not flinch from laying down the law even for the clever and powerful Narendra Modi, routinely drawing barbs for the pains he was taking in the cause of democracy. This Gujarat experience served Mr Lyngdoh well in Kashmir and his no-nonsense reputation put the fear of the law into the hearts of separatists and terrorists. Really, for the first time, Jammu and Kashmir had a squeaky clean election, comparable with any good poll anywhere in the world that might be worthy of emulation. The world applauded the 2002 polls in the state, in which public participation was overwhelming, tearing a hole through the separatist propaganda that ordinary Kashmiris were not ready to cast their ballot in an election conducted under the Indian Constitution. It is clear that under the leadership of current chief election commissioner S.Y. Quraishi, the EC has absorbed the lessons learnt in the days of Mr Seshan and Mr Lyngdoh, and made more innovations. The recent Assembly polls in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry went off like a dream, with extraordinarily high voter participation. Seven months ago, the EC had also conducted a similar election in Bihar, which is always ready to give weak, silly, or non-impartial administrators a run for their money.
In the just-concluded exercise the EC choked the flow of suspect money into the election process — first by ensuring that all candidates opened bank accounts to receive contributions for poll expenses, and then posting sleuths at key places like airports to screen crooked elements carrying tainted funds for elections. A few discoveries worked as warning shots. The law and order machinery too went like clockwork, seeing that the EC would not tolerate any phoney answers. Anxious senior politicians — Tamil Nadu government leaders come to mind here — protested that the EC was enforcing the model code of conduct in a “dictatorial” way, but the EC held its ground, and citizens were not complaining! The EC correctly maintained that since laws were made for a purpose, it would make sure these were properly implemented.
Given the nation’s current political situation, the recent polls were fiercely contested. The results could have a bearing on the future of major parties, and also on the distribution of power at the Centre, besides the states which went to the polls. There was widespread fear of violence in West Bengal and Assam, with Maoists and other militants expected to cause severe disruptions. In West Bengal, a common complaint used to be that votes were cast on behalf of people by toughs quite routinely. This time such evildoers were put to flight, and voter turnout was inordinately high in all the states. Indeed, the experience of the recent polling can go into a primer on how to conduct clean elections that encourage voter participation and deepen the democratic process.