If a popular vote had been taken between 1991and 1996, the Election Commission of India (ECI) would have been certainly voted as the best and most effective institution of India — even higher than the Constitutional Courts. Thanks to T N Seshan, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), the ECI’s independence, integrity and impartiality (the three ‘I’s) were universally acclaimed. After Seshan, the CECs who stoutly defended the three ‘I’s were M S Gill, Mr J M Lyngdoh, Mr T S Krishnamurthy, Navin Chawla and Mr S Y Quraishi. Other CECs drifted in and drifted out, sometimes bending and sometimes appearing to be unbending. CECs appointed in the last 12 years were, viewed through the prism of the Constitution, disasters.

ECI is an autonomous institution. In the early years, the conduct of elections was not considered a great challenge. People voted according to the wishes of local satraps, some sections were not allowed to vote but they were too poor and powerless to complain, and there was no political challenge to the Congress. Elections became challenging after 1967. The governments between 1965 and 2014 did not interfere with the functioning of the ECI, nor do I recall any accusation of interference. Some elections to the state assemblies were alleged to have been rigged but the allegation was not........

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