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New Delhi: This morning, The Indian Express has reported on official communication from within the three-member Election Commission of India which establishes that most orders that have come in the past 10 months, ostensibly from the commission, have not had the consent of the majority of the Election Commissioners (ECs). Gyanesh Kumar Gupta, the Chief Election Commissioner’s (CEC’s) actions have been objected to officially at least 14 times.

This period is very crucial to the sanctity of India’s electoral rolls – the backbone of India’s democracy – as 12 crore names have been struck off in extremely controversial circumstances, with court cases, irate and disaffected voters alleging exclusion. Now it turns out, they violate Article 324 itself, which says clearly that all decisions will be taken unanimously as far as possible, and definitely with the majority in agreement. The powers are vested in the ECI and not the CEC alone.

All three ECs are appointees of the Modi government, and were put in place in accordance with the controversial new law brought in to exclude the presence of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) in the selection committee. The CJI’s presence had been to ensure a non-partisan appointment for such a crucial constitutional office.

But who is Gyanesh Kumar Gupta?

The ECI website describes the 26th CEC of India as a 1988-batch Kerala Cadre Officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). After completing his B.Tech from llT Kanpur, he has also studied Business Finance and Environmental Economics.

A fluent Malayalam speaker, as is demanded by his job, he (in)famously stuck to Hindi in the viral press conference where correspondents from all around India quizzed him on subtle but significant changes in how the Election Commission treated data and CCTV footage from inside polling booths. He evoked the privacy of........

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