Tasks before the new CEC
Gyanesh Kumar becomes CEC amid challenges to ECI's integrity; must restore trust and ensure transparency in upcoming elections.
Gyanesh Kumar takes over as the chief election commissioner (CEC) of India at a time when the authority and integrity of the Election Commission of India (ECI) has come under challenge. The outgoing CEC, Rajiv Kumar, on demitting office said that “losers” must not target ECI. He has a point — the commission’s institutional integrity has been repeatedly questioned, particularly by the Congress, after the latter’s electoral losses in the Haryana and Maharashtra assembly elections — but it must also be said the statutory body needs to do its bit to win back the trust of the Opposition and sceptics in civil society.
The perception that ECI allows far too much leeway to the ruling party and its leaders during the election campaign or allegations that voter turnout and electoral rolls have been manipulated are at worst, mere allegations, or at best, data points shorn of context as of now, but the institution will need to walk the extra yard to clear the air on them. For Ceaser’s wife must be above suspicion. ECI must ensure that its well-deserved reputation as an independent authority that is committed to holding elections in a free and fair manner and without bending to the whims of the executive authority is not compromised. That, perhaps, is the foremost challenge for Kumar, who is likely to oversee at least 20 assembly elections during his tenure as CEC.
How the Supreme Court concludes the Opposition’s plea on the constitution of the panel that selects the ECI may have a bearing on the fraught relations between the institution and the Opposition. In March 2023, the apex court had asked the Centre to invite the Chief Justice of India to be on the selection panel until Parliament legislated on the matter. The government quickly brought in a law but changed the composition of the three-member panel to include a Union minister besides the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. The new law has tilted the scales in the government’s favour, which the Opposition has argued goes against the spirit of the apex court’s order that preferred the inclusion of a third, neutral party in the panel.
Just as the apex court settles the debate, the CEC should put in measures to make the election process more transparent. The point is not just to hold elections in a free and fair manner but also to beseen as doing so.
