It was in 1991. PV Narasimha Rao had taken over as the Prime Minister of India and had to be elected to the Lok Sabha to continue in the post. The constituency he had chosen to get elected was Nandyal, in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool district. There were some reports of Rao’s supporters going overboard with his campaign that perhaps violated the ‘moral code of conduct’. This caught the eye of the Election Commission, headed then by the unparalleled TN Seshan. Suddenly there were reports that Seshan was threatening to cancel the elections. If the elections were cancelled, Rao would have had to step down from the PM’s position, for the time for him to get elected to the house was running out.

At the height of such tension one day, I was sitting with Seshan at his home on Pandara Road. The phone rang. Seshan pressed the reply button on the speaker phone and I could hear the voice of the powerful private secretary to Rao on the other side: Sir, this is ****, PM would like to speak to you. I looked on in anticipation, and excitement, for I was aware of the stories doing the rounds. Barely did I hear the PMO’s hold-on music, I heard Seshan count. 1 – 2 – 3. Click. He disconnected the line. I was dumbstruck. That…that was the Prime Minister, I said, almost in shock.

Rajesh, I am the Chief Election Commissioner of India, NOT government of India, Seshan retorted angrily to me in his booming voice. Sure enough, within a minute the phone rang again and the same push-reply-button routine followed. It was Rao himself on the line. Seshan immediately picked up the handset after this and I could hear only one side of the conversation where he told Rao about the wrong things his supporters were indulging in. I don’t know what Rao told him, but what followed since is common knowledge.

Rao didn’t campaign in his constituency and even told his supporters to be very low key. He was subsequently elected from Nandyal with a victory margin of over half a million votes.

Why am I narrating this incident? Because it shows what a powerful, independent institution can do for this nation’s democracy.

Now, compare that with the meek response to the audacious defiance to the diktats of the present Election Commission by the nation’s law minister, Salman Khurshid. The minister, during his campaign in the politically sensitive and important state of Uttar Pradesh, had promised that 9 per cent of quota within the 27 per cent backward caste reservation would be for Muslims. The move drew a quick response from the EC, which censured him. But instead of being careful, he repeated his promise at another rally and even dared EC by saying: EC can hang me if it wants to, but no one can stop me from saying I will get you this quota.

EC’s response to this, that too after the opposition parties raised a ruckus, has been to write a ‘strong’ letter to the President to reign in the law minister. I don’t know what the right move by the EC should have been, but I am more than certain that no political party would have had the guts to do so if Seshan was the CEC, or even some others after him. He would have certainly done something to send shivers down the spine of all violators, for he never just threatened, he followed threats with action, strong, exemplary action. Now, what can the President do here, or Khurshid’s party for that matter?

Perhaps the Congress party will keep him out of the campaign from now on. Big deal! It will be akin to bolting the stable door after the horse has bolted, perhaps deliberately. The perpetrators of this violation – Khurshid and the others who planned with him – are perhaps laughing their heads off at this open challenge to the institution. Have you seen the reactions of Kapil Sibal and Digvijaya Singh? Instead of showing remorse, they are blaming EC itself.

But do they even for a moment sit back and think of the damage they are causing the institution that is the backbone of our democratic process? How low can one get in this politics of vote bank? Shameful, and disgraceful.

I have often raised the issue of how this government has repeatedly eroded credibility of the institutions that our nation is proud of.

Remember the misuse of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory when it wanted to prove that the Shanti Bhushan tapes are not doctored? I did a post on that in May 2011. And recently, the shoddy handling of the Army chief’s age issue and also the manner in which space scientists from the venerated Indian Space Research Organisation were treated. Both these could have been handled with grace, tact, and discretely, but were instead turned into fullblown spats that damaged the reputation of our army as well as the space scientists.

There is a limit to brazenness. Is there no way the rulers who are so hell-bent on destroying the credibility of institutions that have stood the test of time will learn their lesson? How can they be well-wishers of this nation if they happily destroy the very institutions that are critical to our nation to suit their own, selfish, vested, political interests?

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