New Poll Panel Bill that Makes Parliamentary System a Mockery
The Bill introduced by Modi government in the Rajya Sabha on August 11, 2023 seeking to remove the Chief Justice of India (CJI) from the panel that selects Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Election Commissioners (ECs) is in gross violation of the Supreme Court (SC) rule on March 2 that a High-Power Committee consisting of Prime Minister (PM), Leader of Opposition (LOp) in Lok Sabha and CJI will choose the CEC and ECs.
The March order of the Constitution Bench of SC had come based on a 2015 PIL challenging the Constitutional validity of the practice of the Centre/Executive appointing it’s ‘yes men’ in the Poll Panel. In its direction, the SC unequivocally pointed out that the Indian Constitution “did not intend the executive exclusively calling the shots in the matter of appointments to the Election Commission.”
On the other hand, in the Bill now introduced by the Modi government, the 3-member panel selecting the Poll Panel is composed of the PM, a cabinet minister nominated by him and the LOp in the Lok Sabha. Since decision will always be with the PM in this case, the LOp, being outvoted in the beginning itself, becomes totally irrelevant and meaningless even before the selection process starts. Further, since the 3-member Search Committee that is entrusted with the task of preparing the panel of names from which the PM constitues EC, is composed of Cabinet Secretary and Secretaries having their allegiance with the fascist regime, the EC will remain an arm or rubber-stamp of the PM himself.
To be precise, the move by the Modi regime that undermines even namesake autonomy of ECI, as a so called ‘symbol of democracy’, goes against the very objective of the framers of Indian Constitution. Revealingly, until now the rank of the Election Commissionerss were equivalent to that of a SC judge, but in the proposed Bill, it is equated with that of the cabinet secretary, thus converting the ECI as a mere bureaucratic appendage of the regime, thereby enabling the fascist to carry on their agenda keeping the parliament itself a mere edifice.
This fascist move by the Modi government should be seen in view of its political expediency in the coming General election, as the next vacancy in the ECI is due following the retirement of one of the members of the Poll Panel in February, 2024, just on the eve of the end of the present Lok Sabha. And by that time the plan is to transform the ECI as a bureaucratic extension of the fascist regime, since RSS with its ideology of Manuvad has already permeated to the higher echelons of bureaucracy. Hence, if not resisted and defeated this vicious move , the coming election itself may become a farce under the fascists.
CPI (ML) Red Star appeals to the working class and all oppressed joing with all anti-fascist democratic forces to come forward to resist and defeat this fascist offensive, without any let up !
P J James
General Secretary
CPI (ML) Red Star
New Delhi
11th August 2023
