Panel including CJI, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha should select election commissioners: CPI(M)

Questioning the independence of the Election Commission of India, the CPIM has demanded that the selection of election commissioners be done by a committee including the Chief Justice of India and the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.

Questioning the independence of the Election Commission of India, the CPI(M) has demanded that the selection of election commissioners be done by a committee including the Chief Justice of India and the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. In the latest edition of its mouthpiece, 'People's Democracy', the CPI(M) said some of the recent positions and steps taken by the Election Commission (EC) of India, the country's apex poll body, did no credit to its well-earned reputation of being an impartial arbiter and supervisor of free-and-fair elections -- a role vested in it by the Constitution.

''In the last few years, particularly after the Modi government came back to power for a second term, the EC is seen increasingly to acquiesce to the wishes of the government and has even resiled from some of the independent positions it had earlier adopted,'' it said.

Citing instances to highlight such moves by the poll panel, the CPIM(M) said interference in political parties' commitments to people was an effort to ''circumscribe the policy of a political party'' within the prevailing wisdom of fiscal rectitude and the EC had ''no business'' in evaluating such promises. The party also alleged that the EC was setting new standards in the conduct of elections to the Gujarat Assembly.

''First of all, the announcement of the Gujarat (Assembly) elections was delayed much after the announcement of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls. Everybody has seen how these extra days were utilised by the prime minister to inaugurate or open a series of projects and schemes in Gujarat.

''The other unusual step taken is the EC signing MoUs with over a thousand corporate houses in Gujarat to monitor 'electoral participation of their workforce' and publish the names of those who do not vote on their websites or notice boards. This comes dangerously close to voting by coercion,'' it said.

The CPI(M) also alleged that the management of companies were now being entrusted with the responsibility to ensure that their workers cast their votes. The next step would be to advise workers how to vote, it said.

The party said that the independence of the poll panel was of paramount importance and vital to democracy. ''Its independence and integrity cannot be allowed to be eroded by an authoritarian government. It is time for reforms in the Election Commission. To begin with, the selection of Election Commissioners must be done by a committee, which includes the Chief Justice of India and the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha. Right now it is solely in the hands of the executive. ''Secondly, after retirement, a commissioner should be barred from taking up any official position or nomination by a political party to become a member of parliament or legislature,'' the CPI(M) said.