I remember November 10, 2020, vividly. Counting had begun for the Bihar Assembly election. We had genuine complaints and grievances on several matters, including postal ballots. The margin between our alliance and the alliance eventually declared victorious was only a few hundred votes in several constituencies. We approached the Election Commission of India’s (ECI’s) office in Bihar at least four times during the day. We held a press conference and presented the evidence and our concerns to the public. We eventually accepted the mandate. This did not mean that every objection had disappeared. But we felt the credibility of the institution conducting the election had to be protected.

A political party can lose an election and return to the people. But if the institution that conducts elections loses public credibility, there is no easy way to repair the damage.

The ECI itself records that the institution was created to safeguard India’s new democracy through free and fair elections and that the Constituent Assembly deliberately kept the election machinery outside the control of the executive government. The legacy of India’s first CEC,........

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