Civilizationally, democratic republics or 'Mahajanpada' or Metropolitan City existed in India between 600 BCE to 345 BCE.Ancient Buddhist texts like the Anguttara Nikaya make frequent reference to sixteen great kingdoms and republics which had evolved and flourished in a belt stretching from Gandhara in the north-west to Anga in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent and included parts of the trans-Vindhyan region.
These republics were managed by 'mut' a Sanskrit word with soft 't', for 'consent' and which presently is used in Hindi as translation of word 'vote'. It is believed that these Metropolitan nations were run on consensus.
India is a parliamentary democracy which is over 70 years old and in 2014, India elected it's 16th Parliament. Unlike most countries, India is not a two party system. It is not even a three party system. It is a multi party democracy with numerous (say 40 parties) elected to the house at any given time. Presently it has two serious national parties, three aspiring national parties and at least 30 serious regional parties. Actual number of political parties registered with Election Commission of India may be just shy of two thousand. There are a large number of active political parties.
The Hindu: 1866 political parties in India
Most of these parties are due to tax benefits because a political party is exempt from payment of Income Tax. All it's receipts are exempt.
Though India is a Federal Union of 29 provinces, it is not a confederate of States. In other words, it is one nation, one flag and one citizenship. Any demand for cessation is an act of treason.
India the home of largest democracy in the world. It is no small achievement. An ex Election Commissioner called the election exercise in India as the UndocumentedWonder of World which is a mammoth exercise taken by Election Commission of India.
There are four tier institutions of legislatures which are elected to office. At the bottom is elections to Gaon Sabha or Village Committee, second is elections to Zilla Parishad or Local Bodies or Municipal Committees or Corporations and the third is State Government in each of 29 States in India (and some of the 7 Union Territories) and finally the Union Federal Government which is called as Central Government.
The last two elections are conduction by Election Commission of India (ECI) which is an independent Constitutional Institution with guaranteed tenure in office, like judges of Supreme Court. ECI also conducts electionsto the offices of President and Vice-President of India.
Like England, India follows Westminster form of parliamentary democracy. The elections are conducted to elect members of lower house of the Parliament called Lok Sabha (People's Council). The leader of the house is sworn as Prime Minister of India who with his cabinet, advises President of India, which advice is binding.
In the West Minister or British form of parliamentary democracy, the elections are based on first past the poll system. It means if there are 3 voters in a particular constituency, any candidate who gets 2 votes will win. It does not matter if one vote out of 2 is his own vote. Actually it does happen in India and often candidates have won by just 1 vote.
In practical terms, India being the most populous democracy, the each individual seat in parliament (called constituency) has a separate electoral college of electors (voters) and number ofvoters in each constituency differs. The difference could be very vast. Some constituencies have as few as forty thousand voters and others have as large as 33 lakh (3.3 million) voters.
Election Commission of India
The Election Commission of India (ECI, for short) is an autonomous body created by Constitution of India. Part XV (Articles 324 to 329) of the Constitution of India has vested in ECI, the superintendence, direction and control of the entire process for conduct of elections, to Parliament and Legislature of every State and to the offices of President and Vice-President of India.
Appointment & Tenure of Commissioners
Originally the commission had only Chief Election Commissioner. It currently consists of Chief Election Commissioner and two Election Commissioners.
For the first time two additional Commissioners were appointed on 16th October 1989 but they had a very short tenure till 1st January 1990. Later, on 1st October 1993 again two additional Election Commissioners were appointed. The concept of multi-member Commission has been in operation since then, with decision making power by majority vote.
The President appoints Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners. They have tenure of six years, or up to the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier. They enjoy the same status and receive salary and perks as available to Judges of the Supreme Court of India. The Chief Election Commissioner can be removed from office only through impeachment by Parliament. There is however one interesting fact. Election Commissioner do not take oath of allegiance to the Constitution like Judges and all functionary in the Government do. It appears to be unconscious ommission.
Judicial Review
Once the actual process of elections has started, the judiciary does not intervene in the actual conduct of the polls. Except this self imposed refrain, orders and decisions of ECI are subject to judicial review by High Courts and Supreme Court.
Once the polls are completed and result declared, ECIcannot review any result on its own. The validity of result can be challenged through the process of an election petition, which can be filed before the High Court, in respect of elections to the Parliament and State Legislatures. In respect of elections for the offices of the President and Vice President, such petitions can only be filed before the Supreme Court. Thus the election results are final subject to judicial review on the groundsof misconduct in electoral process by the candidate or impropriety on the part of ECI.
EVM or Electronic Voter Machine
After the last general elections of 2019, EVMs were in lime light again for wrong reasons. The party losing elections, does not accept defeat gracefully but place the blame on EVMs. What is an EVM?
An EVM consists of two units, a control unit, and the balloting unit. The two units are joined by a five-meter cable. Balloting unit facilitates voting by a voter via labelled buttons while the control unit controls the ballot units, stores voting counts and displays the results on 7 segment LED displays.
The controller used in EVMs has its operating program etched permanently in silicon at the time of manufacturing by the manufacturer. No one (including the manufacturer) can change the program once the controller is manufactured. The software is not reprogrammable at all.
EVMs are powered by an ordinary 6 volt alkaline battery manufactured by Bharat Electronics Limited, Bangalore and Electronics Corporation of India Limited, Hyderabad. Battery operation enables the use of EVMs throughout the country without interruptions because earlier in many parts of India power supply did not exist or was erratic.
An EVM can record a maximum of 3840 votes and can cater to a maximum of 64 candidates. There is a provision for 16 candidates in a single balloting unit and up to a maximum of 4 units can be connected in parallel. The conventional ballot paper/box method of polling is used if the number of contesting candidates exceeds 64.
It is not possible to vote more than once by pressing the button again and again. As soon as a particular button on the balloting unit is pressed, the vote is recorded for that particular candidate and the machine gets locked. Even if one presses that button further or any other button, no further vote will be recorded. The EVM is unlocked by Ballot Officer after the next voter arrives. This way the EVMs ensure the principle of "one person, one vote".
The EVMs were commissioned in 1989 by Election Commission of India in collaboration with Bharat Electronics Limited and Electronics Corporation of India Limited. The Industrial designers of the EVMs were faculty members at the Industrial Design Centre, IIT Bombay. The EVMs were first field tested in 1982 in the by-election to North Paravur Assembly Constituency in Kerala for a limited number of polling stations.
The EVMs were first time used on an experimental basis in selected constituencies of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. In State Elections, the EVMs were used for the first time in the elections to the assembly of Goa in 1999. In 2003, all by-elections and state elections were held using EVMs.
Encouraged by efficiency of EVMs, ECI decided to use only EVMs for Lok Sabha elections in 2004. Now all elections are conducted by ECI with EVMs.
International out-reach of ECI
India is a founding member of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), Stockholm, Sweden. ECI shares experience and expertise in the areas of Electoral Management and Administration, Electoral Laws and Reforms with many countries. Election Officials from the national electoral bodies and other delegates from the several countries like Russia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Indonesia, South Africa, Bangladesh, Thailand, Nigeria, Namibia, Bhutan, Australia, the United States and Afghanistan etc. interact with ECI for a better understanding of the Electoral Process in India. ECI also provides experts and observers for elections to other countries in co-operation with the United Nations and the Commonwealth Secretariat.
T.N. Sheshan
Any conversation about Election Commission of India is incomplete without reference to Tirunellai Narayana Iyer Seshan.T.N. Seshan was a brilliant student from Chennai who topped the IPS exam in 1954 only to skip it to become IAS, next year in 1955. On 12 December 1989 T.N.Seshan became Chief Election Commissioner (CEC for short). Prior to that he was Cabinet Secretary, the senior most position in the Indian civil service hierarchy, and then, a Member, Planning Commission of India, before being appointed as CEC.
Until Seshan became CEC, the CECs were obedient bureaucrats who kowtowed to party in power, rarely understanding what to speak of wielding the enormous powers given to them by the Constitution. So much so that the Election Commission on it's stationary used to write as a 'Department of Government'. Seshan stopped this practice.
The first attack of Seshan was on bogus voting. He ordered that each elector be issued a photo identity card. Secondly he drafted CentralGovernment employees for conducting elections in the States so as they may remain uninfluenced by State Governments.
Thirdly he drafted ParaMilitary Central Forces to conduct elections, freefrom criminal muscle power. Seshan was instrumental in conceptualisingElectronic Voting Machine or EVMinto use in future instead of pliant and cumbersome ballot paper. He also introduced the concept of 'Model Code of Conduct' for elections, violation of which my invalidate elections. This code inter alia included following prohibitions:
1. Bribing or intimidating voters
2. Distribution of liquor during elections.
3. Use of official machinery for campaigning.
4. Appealing to voters' caste or communal feelings.
5. Use of places of worship for campaigns.
6. Defacement of public property by sticking bills or posters.
7. Use of loudspeakers and/or high volume music without prior written permission.
It is true that some of above activities have stopped altogether but some like payment of money or goodies to voter has gone underground. During every election, massive amounts of cash or liquor is seized by police which shows that malpractices may have been rendered illegal but are not completely abated.
Cash payment to poor voters has reached mammoth proportions. Presently such paid votes may count anywhere between 1% to 5%, as a wild guess.
Seshan secured unprecedented powers to Election Commission for conducting free and fair elections in India. Accordingly, from the day of announcement of election schedule, the administration of the State or Union Territory, where elections are held, is at the pleasure of ECI which can transfer and post officers at will. ECI's sweep extend to all departments of Government including civil bureaucracy and police.
However to do all this, Seshan had to first assert his powers as a Constitutional Functionary which were challenged but upheld by Supreme Court. It was observed:
"…...The Preamble of our Constitution proclaims that we are a Democratic Republic. Democracy being the basic feature of our constitutional set up, there can be no two opinion that free and fair elections to our legislative bodies alone would guarantee the growth of a healthy democracy in the country. In order to ensure the purity of the election process it was thought by our Constitution-makers that the responsibility to hold free and fair elections in the country should be entrusted to an independent body which would be insulated from political and/or executive interference. It is inherent in a democratic set up that the agency which is entrusted the task of holding elections to the legislatures should be fully insulated so that it can function as an independent agency free from external pressures from the party in power or executive of the day. This objective is achieved by the setting up of an Election Commission, a permanent body, under Article 324(1) of the Constitution. The superintendence, direction and control of the entire election process in the country has been vested under the said clause in a commission called the Election Commission….."
See T.N. Seshan vs. Unionof India dated 14 July 1995.
Is this a coincidence that after such massive reforms, for next 30 years, no single party could win majority of seats in Parliament till 2014? I don't think so.
The situation could be looked from another angle. In all elections held prior to 1990, a party would not lose elections until it lost massively. Why the large swings? Because with rigging of elections any small discontentment of public could easily be ironed out by manipulation. No wonder the joke in the time of Seshan was that "Indian politicians, fear only God and TN Seshan, but not necessarily in that order."
Shashi Tharoor, a member of parliament (from Congress Party) recently admitted that 1987 elections in State of Kashmir were rigged. The other congress leaders also admitted the rigging.
BBC.COM: Kashmir elections rigged.
. Arun Jaitley, the finance minister in Modi Government also made a similar assertion about rigging in Kashmir election, on the floor of house on Jan. 2,2019.
Another ex MP, Kirti Azad who was in BJP but joined Congress in 2019 had asserted that Congress workers used to capture booth for him and his late father in Bihar until about 1999 election.
Opindia: Kirti Azad alleges booth capturing.
This rigging is done by various methods. But with ballot paper it was easier to capture a Polling Booth with the connivance of local police, stamp all the ballot papers, put it in the ballot box and viola. Election was won. Booth Management is an euphemism for booth capturing.
These allegations and admissions cast doubt on fairness of results of all elections held prior to 1990, after which reforms were implemented by Seshan.
It is an irony that such a leader rather reformer like Seshan was later shunned by all political parties and had to withdraw from public life and presently is confined to an old age home in Chennai. Needless to say no person is not without faults for perfection is thy name. ( Seshan went on to demand that in warrant of precedence his office be placed at number 9 at which place the judges of Supreme Court are placed. Supreme Court rebuffed him.)
General Elections
General Election means election to the Parliament of India. Election Commission has just one competitor in the world:
Itself.
In every election it has to out do itself. Population of India is rising and so does number of electors/voters. In every election ECI has to manage higher number of electors. But it has done an exemplary job.
India had 834,082,814 (83.4 crore or 834 million) valid electors to elect the Government in 2014 elections. In 2019 this number rose to approximately 90 Crore or 900 million.
Elections of 2014 cost Rs. 3,426 crore to the national exchequer, a substantial jump of 131 per cent over the expenses incurred in 2009 when the total expenses was Rs.1483 Crores. The expenses in conducting the elections, jumped 20 times since 1952 when the cost was 60 paise per elector which rose toRs. 12 per elector in 2009.
The Hindu: Election expences of Govt. of India.
ECI has a permanent Secretariat with a permanent staff of about 300 people. But it can draft as many officers from the Government as it may deem fit to conduct the elections. Once elections are announced the administrative powers of the ECI also extend to transfer and post officers of civil administration as also the police.
With a polling staff of 66,96,084 people and micro observers of 1,51,417 people Election Commission of India conducted the 2014 elections in which 1,55,020 video cameras and 64,725 digital cameras were used to record the events.
Election expenditure
The need for money to fight elections is a perpetual cycle which is summed up by Lee Kuan Yew succinctly as under:
"….A precondition for an honest government is that candidates must not need large sums of money to get elected, or it must trigger off the cycle of corruption. The bane of most countries in Asia has been the high cost of elections. Having spent a lot to get elected, winners must recover their costs and also accumulate funds for the next election. The system is self-perpetuating..."
So far election of 2014 and 2019 are concerned, India is racing away very fast from the object of honest Government. The election expenses of it's political partiesare bloating at monstrous proportion. In 2014, the winning party i.e. BJP alone spent about 700 crore rupee (about 100 Million USD). In 2019 the runner up Congress which could not win even ten percent seats in Parliament spent about 8 Arab rupees (Rs. 8,208,933,152 or approx. 110 million USD) (Click the link to download the file)
The Election Commission also keeps an eye on money power being used in Election. Often political parties or candidates bribe voters in cash or kind. It would be surprising to know that while in 2014 General Elections, the cash and other possible gifts which were seized by Election Commission was about rupees 300 crores. In 2019 Elections this figure rose to rupees 3475 crores which is staggering.
Seizure Report issued by Election Commission of India
What explains the explosion in election spending? What are its consequences? No doubt, things cost more today than they did in 1947. But the rise in spending wildly outpaces the rate of inflation.
Elections in political parties
While ECI has done an excellent job in the manner of conduct of elections, it has miserably failed to ensure inner party democracy within the political parties which have now become a kind of dynastic proprietorship entities which appoint leaders (MLAs, MPs etc.) like commercial entities appoint dealers.
It was not always like this but the drastic changes appeared under the rule of Indira Gandhi. According to a former member of planning commission who had worked under Indira, explained the character of Congress(I) which was carved out of old Congress Party:
"….In one stroke, the character of the Congress changed, from a party with grass roots membership to what I call the …. Shoe Company, where the proprietor appoints dealers who appoints sub-dealers. One of the first things that she did when she formed her own Congress was that the membership of the Congress organisation was abolished. ….They said they would have a fresh membership because the Syndicate still controlled the organisational wing of the party. And since then, till now, the Congress has no membership….."
ISBN: 8188434051, 9788188434053; Civil Disobedience: Two Freedom Struggles, One Life by L.C. Jain.
We have no idea about present status of membership of Congress Party or for that matter many other political parties. However BJP at it's website (BJP.ORG) claims to have 11 Crore members. The details of elections in these parties are including manner thereof are opaque. There is no point if Election within these parties are not conducted in a transparent manner preferably with ECI official acting as oversight.
Inner Party Democracy
Election Commission of India is one of the most powerful institution. It is completely insulated from the Government. As we discussed above, but for drastic efforts by Election Commission, Democracy would not have flourished in India. Rise in percentage of voting which was below 50% in 1952 to about 70% in 2019 is indicative of rising confidence of people. In some pockets, the voting percentage has crossed 95%. It must be very encouraging for the Commission.
But there is serious lacunae in Political system. That is lack of Inner Party Democracy. Political parties exist without any list of members or an election. Entire team of office bearers is nominated by President or the General Constitution. Parties are run like proprietorship businesses. They are not subjected to same over sight as exercised over private companies what to say of listed public companies.In this regard following is the extract of official policy of ECI as stated on it's website (https://eci.gov.in/)in regard to democracy within party:
".. Political parties are registered with the Election Commission under the law. The Commission ensures inner party democracy in their functioning by insisting upon them to hold their organisational elections at periodic intervals. Political Parties so registered with it are granted recognition at the State and National levels by the Election Commission on the basis of their poll performance at general elections according to criteria prescribed by it. The Commission, as a part of its quasi-judicial jurisdiction, also settles disputes between the splinter groups of such recognised parties. ……… Election Commission ensures a level playing field for the political parties in election fray, through strict observance by them of a Model Code of Conduct evolved with the consensus of political parties..."
As a matter of fact it is a mere lip service. India is waiting for another Seshan to cleanse the Party system. Mere filing of bogus election results must not be accepted by ECI. It must ensure that proper membership registers are maintained by each party and free and fair elections are made to the office bearers of the party. It must not continue registration of political parties which gives undue powers to central leadership to nominate office bearers instead of the elections. Only with such reform the the political dealership of the kind which exists, can end. This is the reason for existence of dynastic politics in India, which has made politics in India, a lucrative business enterprise. Moreover income of a registered party is exempt from income tax. As stated earlier, this explains a large number of political parties which exist for tax benefits only.
If there is no enforcement of Inner Party Democracy by the Election Commission, corruption would be the only outcome of such a situation. Therefore Election Commission must act in this direction. It may start with baby steps by beginning to call for list of members of each party. Ensure transparent and corruption free method of nomination of legislatures. Thereafter election reports and so on. Political parties must only do politics. It is no business of a political party to do business of profiteering.
Election Strategists
In 2014 BJP introduced a new professional to the public. It hired an Election Strategist to organise it's campaign. Later the same strategist joined a political party but continue to run his commercial enterprise as Election Strategist. This is nothing short of conflict of interest. Election Commission however has turned a blind eye to this phenomenon. Election Commission must step in and issue necessary guidelines in this regard for proper code of conduct for such professionals.
Free and fair elections are the foundation on which a free republic can stand. Election Commission must strengthen it.
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