Allegations against Election Commission (Case Study)

An Member of Parliament alleged vote theft at a press conference held in an assembly constituency in a southern state. The evidence presented in the press conference is based on an independent investigation conducted by a research team of a national political party, which revealed that there were over one lakh fake voters in this assembly constituency. The allegations point to deliberate and systematic manipulation of the voter list. The allegations also indicate that thousands of voters are registered at house number “zero”. Thousands of voters’ photographs were blurred/missing/too small to be identified in the voter list and thousands of other voters are registered to vote at multiple polling stations, sometimes in different states, and even vote more than once.

Given the gravity of this allegation, it is difficult to dismiss it as a “clerical error”. Such allegations by an Member of Parliament have raised serious questions about the credibility of the Election Commission of India, the sanctity of the electoral process and the legitimacy of elected representatives across India. The question that haunts the Indian public is: if the Election Commission is not impartial, there is no democracy and also if there is no democracy, then India is not what we claim to know. And if it happened in one constituency, what is the guarantee that it would not have happened everywhere?

(a) What are the options available with Election Commission to cope with the situation?

(b) What are the ethical dilemmas being faced by Election commission after such allegations?

(c) Which of the options, do you think, would be more appropriate for Election Commission to adopt and why?

(d) In this present situation, what additional precautionary measures should be taken by the Election Commission to deal with the elections in India?

(e) Discuss the pros and cons of a Member of Parliament accusing the Election Commission of violating democratic values.