The Election Commission (EC) has done more damage to Indian democracy than any other institution in the country. Knowingly or unknowingly, the whole electoral process has come under the shadow of doubt. Now, there is serious apprehension in the minds of the people that elections are being manipulated to benefit the ruling party.

I don’t know how much is done deliberately, nor do I have any information, but its conduct as an institution needs more clarification and more honest answers. It is not surprising that in CSDS surveys, the credibility of the EC has consistently gone down, and the EC has not done anything to resurrect its image.

The present controversy about the special intensive review of the electoral list on the eve of the Bihar assembly election is a pointer to the fact that there is something seriously wrong with the institution and it needs radical reform.

It is common knowledge that Bihar elections will be announced within two months, what was then the need to go through such a widespread review of the electoral list? The last review, in 2003, had taken almost two years to complete. Now the EC wants to complete the same exercise in two months.

The whole exercise gets more complicated and raises serious suspicions about the motive of the exercise given the fact that these are the months when the monsoon hits the state and floods ravage a large part of Bihar. Bihar is the most backward state in the........

© Free Press Journal