Democracy at crossroads: Why new CEC appointment is a concern | LME 62
We’ve seen some dramatic midnight moves in Indian politics before—remember this surprise swearing-in? Devendra Fadnavis sworn in in the wee hours. Well, now we’ve got another midnight appointment.
This time, it’s the appointment of India’s Chief Election Commissioner (CEC).
Gyanesh Kumar is the new CEC
His appointment happened despite a strong dissent from Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi
And the government timed it in between crucial court hearings
Why are the hearings crucial?
Because the new law pushed through by the Modi government—on how a CEC should be elected -- has been challenged in the Supreme Court.
If you’re wondering why this is a big deal and why should you care?
Well, if people are going to trust elections, the Election Commission has to be neutral—not just in reality, but in perception too. The way the CEC is chosen also needs to project the structural integrity of the election process
And let’s be honest—this isn’t coming out of nowhere. In the past few years, a shadow of doubt has crept over many of the Election Commission’s decisions.
From blatant favouritism to unexplained voter related data, there’s been growing concern about whether the Election Commission is truly independent.
Because, make no mistake—the person who holds this position can shape the future of our democracy.
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Now back to the election commissioner.
A big announcement on Monday night has stirred a bit of a controversy in India.
The President of India appointed Gyanesh Kumar, the current Election Commissioner, as the new Chief Election Commissioner, or CEC.
Vivek Joshi, Haryana’s Chief Secretary, is stepping in as the new Election Commissioner.
While, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu is staying on, completing the three-member ECI.
If you are wondering why this is such a big deal, let me break it down to you.
The concern here is that these “overnight” appointments might be an attempt by the Modi government to rush things, before the court rules on this law.
The new appointments are based on a controversial law passed by the Union government in 2023, this Act is currently being challenged in the Supreme Court.
And here too, it’s important to point out chronology.
In 2023, the Constitution bench of the Supreme Court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation demanding that the process of appointment of members of the Election Commission of India be reformed. The PIL was simple- have a mechanism to elect election commissioners.
There was no such mechanism in place till then. Appointments were done by the President- on the advice of the Prime Minister. And seniority was usually the basis.
When institutions like the National and State Human Rights Commission, the CBI, Information Commission, Lokpal etc have independent mechanisms for appointments, the Parliament of India, till then, had brought in no law for election commission appointments.
On March 2 2023, the SC ruled that the selection of the CEC and Election Commissioners should be handled by a committee. This committee was to have the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition, and the Chief Justice of India.
The Supreme Court said the Parliament should enact a law, and till then this committee will function.
What was the apex court’s goal? To make the process more independent, and relatively free from the influence of the ruling government.
So what should the Modi govt have ideally done? They should have gone with the SC ruling or improvised and made it better.
Instead, the Modi govt brought in the CEC and Other ECs Act.
This new law took what the SC said but gave it a twist. A dangerous twist.
Instead of the 3 member panel having the CJI, as SC suggested, the Modi govt decided to put a Union Cabinet Minister on the selection committee.
So the selection committee will have a cabinet minister, his boss, the prime minister and the leader of opposition.
So, in short, the government has a pretty strong grip on the process.
Understandably, people weren’t too happy about this. A group of petitioners went to the Supreme Court, asking for the law to be reconsidered before the next CEC was appointed.
This became urgent, especially since then CEC, Rajiv Kumar, was set to finish his term on February 18. But the court didn’t act quickly enough, and on February 12, they decided to push the hearing to February 19. And on February 19, this was pushed again to March 19.
And the govt, in a tearing hurry, went ahead and made the appointments
A meeting was held between Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on February 17, and just hours later, Gyanesh Kumar’s appointment was announced.
An outnumbered Rahul, of course, had little say in the process
Rahul has since made it clear that he disapproved of the way in which the selection was made, stating that he has submitted a dissent note to both the Prime Minister and Home Minister.
He said that by violating the Supreme Court order and removing the Chief Justice of India from the committee, the Modi Government has exacerbated the concerns of hundreds of millions of voters over the integrity of our electoral process.
He also pointed out that it was both disrespectful and discourteous for the PM and HM to have made a midnight decision to select the new CEC, especially when the hearing was due in less than 48 hours.
But let’s pause here for a moment.
Is this just a technical detail? Why should you be bothered about this?
For that you need to look at what exactly is the Election Commission’s job?
The Election Commission of India, or the ECI, is responsible for conducting elections at the national and state levels. It decides how elections are held, when they are held, and even manages crucial things like voter registration.
As India’s former CEC SY Quraishi states in his book ‘India’s Experiment with Democracy’, an independent Election Commission of India is a “gift of the Constitution to the nation.”
In fact, during the debates in the Constituent Assembly, there was even a suggestion to treat the purity and independence of elections as a fundamental right.
Dr BR Ambedkar, who chaired the Drafting Committee, pointed out that the committee felt strongly about protecting the independence of elections and avoiding any interference from the executive branch.
The committee, however, ultimately decided to include this in a separate section of the Constitution.
In the past, the Election Commission of India had earned a reputation for fairness and neutrality, making headlines with its bold actions.
For example, Bal Thackeray, the founder of the Shiv Sena, was once disqualified by the ECI for his inflammatory speeches.
But in the past decade, the ECI has been pliant.
Once a symbol of impartiality and strength, its reputation has steadily declined. The respect it once commanded has all but vanished, and its ability to oversee elections has been severely undermined.
Quraishi says in the book that he was shocked by a news headline that he saw in December 2021, which said the chief election commissioner and the two election commissioners were summoned by the Prime Minister’s Office to attend a meeting with the principal secretary to the PM.
He says the PMO’s summoning or ‘inviting’ of not just the CEC but the full bench, was in violation of the Constitution, irrespective of how important or urgent the issue is.
If we take a closer look at how elections are run today, it’s clear the system is deeply flawed.
Let’s consider the voter rolls.
Over the years, complaints have been mounting about missing entries, duplicate entries and wilful deletions and omissions.
For example, during the second phase of the 2019 elections, many Muslim voters in Mathura found their names were mysteriously missing from the electoral rolls. No such issues were reported in Hindu-majority areas.
Similarly, over 700 Muslim fishermen in Gujarat had their names erased after their homes were demolished.
A NewsLaundry investigation showed that in Farrukhabad, Meerut and Chandni Chowk, there were illegal voter deletions, which eventually seem to have helped the BJP.
questions have been raised after many recent elections about how the number of new voters went up drastically with very few answers coming from the Election commission
Then there is the question of bias
During the 2024 elections, the EC took the drastic step of banning the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) official campaign song, claiming it portrayed the “ruling party and its agencies in poor light.”
Yet, when the BJP has been allowed to run divisive, dog-whistling campaigns targeting not just the opposition parties but also demonising the Muslim community. And the lies, well, too damn many to even count. And the ECI mostly remained silent or at best, just sent a pointless notice.
Take, for example, when complaints were made about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech in Rajasthan, where he falsely implied that people’s hard-earned money and women’s mangalsutras would be taken and given to “infiltrators” or “those with more children,” taking jibes at the Muslim community.
Rather than holding Modi accountable, the EC sent a notice to BJP president JP Nadda.
But there are other curious steps taken by the EC that have not been explained convincingly enough.
The Maharashtra elections were not held with Haryana in J&K. Was that to allow the BJP, shinde sena govt to announce a long list of welfare schemes?
Why does the ECI release the voter turnout numbers much later than it used to before?
Why are there multiple revisions in the voter turnout percentage?
The EC has claimed that it is because it takes time to tally the voter turnout but surely with technology and EVMs, should not that process get faster and more accurate than the other way around?
And due to all this, many activists and opposition parties have alleged foul play, even saying it's being done to help the BJP win.
Whether the Election Commission of India has been biased or not will need to be proven with evidence.
But the point is that - they cannot even be SEEN as biased.
This will erode trust in elections and that is something a democracy cannot afford.
So all the politics aside, the question we need to ask ourselves is, do we need an election commissioner who will hold those in power to account or be a cheerleader for the government.
For suggestions & feedback write to pooja@thenewsminute.com
Produced by Megha Mukundan, edited by Nikhil Sekhar, research by Lakshmi Priya
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