Autonomy of the Election Commission

The democratic system that was handed over to us by the visionary Constitution makers by our visionary Constitution makers was given to the Election Commission in such a way that it could take power directly from the Constitution and work as the custodian of the system of electing the legislature by the people and pave the way for the people's representatives to do their work. At the same time, it was also provided in the constitution of Baba Saheb Ambedkar that in a democracy, the power of the Election Commission will be completely independent and it will not become a part of the government, but it will have a greater burden of the process of forming the government of the people. At the same time, the framers of the Constitution also provided for an independent judiciary and placed the burden on it to review both the legislature and the executive to work in accordance with the Constitution. The responsibility of any act of the Legislature should be done according to the Constitution was put on the Judiciary and it was not made a part of the Government.

Babasaheb Ambedkar's statement in the Constituent Assembly on November 25, 1949, before giving the Constitution to the country, proves that he made the Election Commission the overseer of the political system of the country and decided that the Election Commission would prepare a common ground for every political party for the elections to be held after every five years, so that the elections would be completely free and free. Be fair. But after independence, according to the principles of Mahatma Gandhi, Baba Saheb gave every adult citizen of the country the right to vote without any discrimination, using which he could elect his political representatives. All men and women in India were given this right equally. In India looted by the British, this decision was no less than a revolution due to which the whole world was shocked as to how this system would be able to work in Gandhi's country when 90 percent of its population was illiterate and hungry and naked. But Gandhi believed that the poor and illiterate people of his India were not fools. They will prove to be wise in worldly affairs. Today, we have been living in this system for the last 75 years and are constantly progressing.

We are counted among the industrialized countries today, whereas at the time of independence, there was not even a needle production in this country and the entire industrial system was being handled by three Seth Tatas, Birlas and Dalmias. On November 25, 1949, Baba Saheb in his speech described the new democratic system as resting on four pillars. Election Commission, Judiciary, Executive and Legislature. I have written many times before that till the sixties, there was no controversy about the functioning of the Election Commission, so socialist thinker Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia did the work of describing the free press or media as a pillar in place of the Election Commission, which was also publicly recognized. However, there is no mention of a free press in the Constitution but a reference to freedom of expression. A free press draws power from this constitutional provision of freedom of expression and does its work, but this does not diminish the status given to the Election Commission in the Constitution. Nowadays the Parliament session is going on and the opposition is questioning the role of the Election Commission. This is a very serious issue in the context of India because there has been an atmosphere of curiosity even in the international world about India's electoral system. The reason for this is that in India, which is full of vast diversity, it is not easy for a centralized body (the Election Commission) to conduct a fair election. That is why people from all over the world keep coming to New Delhi to study India's electoral system.

It is also worth considering that when we call India a soft power in the international arena, democracy is the main reason for this. Baba Saheb has tied the Election Commission with the responsibility of establishing this democracy. Therefore, its cleanliness in every sense and respect is a condition of India's democracy. Of course, the Election Commission uses the government machinery to do its work with full efficiency and honesty, but it does not do this work under the government, but under the constitutional rights vested in itself. The obvious reason for this is that the executive of India also does its work by taking the oath of the Constitution. The foundation of India's administrative system has been laid by the country's first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in such a way that the Collector and Police Captain of every district start their work only after taking the oath of the Constitution. What a beautiful embroidery the Constitution of India has in our country and the supremacy of Parliament also derives from it.

Therefore, when there is a demand in the Parliament that the functioning of the Election Commission should be debated in the Parliament, then there is no harm in it because the Parliament has established its existence by making a law, but the opposition should also consider that they should look at the functioning of the Election Commission very seriously. Its policy should not be to move forward by creating controversy. Earlier, there was a dispute that the election should be held with ballot papers instead of EVM machines. No constructive debate took place in Parliament and the controversy started over the electoral rolls to be prepared by the Election Commission. There should be unanimity within all the political parties (power and opposition) of the country that the power of the Election Commission should always be independent and it should continue to do its work by drawing strength from the Constitution. After all, in addition to the ballot paper, the right to conduct elections with EVM machines was also given to him by Parliament in the 80s, but now the issue has arisen of the voter list. For this, it is necessary that the Election Commission clears the doubts of the opposition. The Government has no role in it.