Impeachment move shows deep distrust

With his actions, CEC Gyanesh Kumar has triggered a crisis of confidence.

The Opposition plan to move an impeachment motion against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar is unprecedented in the country’s parliamentary history.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) and I.N.D.I.A bloc parties submitted a formal notice for the motion, following weeks of deliberation. It is for the first time that a CEC has faced an impeachment motion and that shows how deep the distrust is.

The TMC took the initiative, and other parties, which have equally strong complaints against the CEC, joined the move. The immediate trigger is the way the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is being conducted in West Bengal.

Assembly elections are due in the state very soon and the TMC strongly believes that the process is loaded against the party through large-scale omission of voters and other manipulations.   

The SIR process has been criticised in other states also. The criticism is not without basis and the Supreme Court has intervened in the process in various ways. The main complaint against the CEC is that his functioning has been ‘’partisan and discriminatory” to favour the BJP.

The conduct of a Constitutional functionary should be above board and evenhanded, but the CEC has been found wanting on many occasions. It is not just the SIR process that has been adversarial.

His responses to complaints about vote chori, raised by Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, and the violation of the model code of conduct by the BJP and members of the government including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have been seen as partisan. The drawing up of election schedules and decisions on Opposition requests on election-rated matters have also come across as being unfair. 

There is merit in the complaints of the Opposition parties. The CEC has not been responsive to their complaints. He was sometimes seen as being hostile in his public postures and statements. The Election Commission is the most important Constitutional office in an electoral democracy and has the responsibility to conduct elections fairly and freely.

The motion for the removal of the CEC is the harshest measure possible against the incumbent of the high office. It is unfortunate that it is being wielded now—it shows the absolute breakdown of relations between the Opposition and the CEC.

The move comes in the wake of the no-confidence motion against Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, and is also bound to fail as in the case of the Speaker. But it serves to draw attention to the decline of the two Constitutional offices vital for the functioning of parliamentary democracy.