New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday passed a bill to regulate appointment and service terms of the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners of India, amid a fierce protest mounted by the Opposition inside the Upper House of the Parliament. Rejecting the Opposition’s allegation that the bill was aimed at circumventing a Supreme Court verdict regarding appointments of the officers that oversee elections in India, law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said the new legislation was brought as the 1991 Act had certain weaknesses. The Opposition parties, however, staged a walkout amid the discussion and slammed the government later for “crushing India’s electoral machinery by a bulldozer”.
Congress, the spearhead of the Opposition’s protest, claimed the Narendra Modi government had attacked the autonomy, fearlessness and fairness of India’s democracy by bringing the legislation.
“The Modi government has attacked the democracy of India. The autonomy, fearlessness and fairness of India’s democracy and electoral machinery have been crushed by a bulldozer. The Modi government is passing a law in Rajya Sabha today to make the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners of the Election Commission of India, a ‘pawn Election Commissioner’,” said Congress leader Randeep Surjewala.
He accused the BJP government of turning EC into “Elections Compromised from Electoral Credibility”. He feared the BJP would unfairly appoint key elections officers of their choice.
“They will appoint a Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners of their own choice. They will run their Election Commission as per their desire. They will prepare an electoral list as per their desire…This is perhaps one of the biggest blows to democracy hurled by the Modi government in the last 9 years…We will take it to the end and the struggle will continue from Parliament to the streets,” he added.
AAP MP Raghav Chadha said: “This is not a bill, it is a bulldozer through which the BJP-led central government has ended the impartiality of the ECI”.
DMK MP T Siva said the bill would make the EC favour the party in power.
“This will be totally in the government’s favour, it can’t be neutral in the way it is expected. In a democratic country, how can this be acceptable?” he said.
Earlier, Meghwal said the Election Commission will continue to work independently.
The bill provides for the appointment, qualifications, search committee, selection committee, term of office, salary, resignation and removal, leaves, pensions of the Chief Election Commissioner and other election commissioners.
The Supreme Court, in a writ petition, ordered that the appointment of CEC and ECs shall be made by the Presidenton the basis of advice tendered by a committee consisting of the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha or leader of the largest opposition party in the House and the Chief Justice of India.
The minister said the court’s judgement will hold good till a law is made by the Parliament.