Is the Modi government's 2023 law hiding dictatorship in the election commission?

Election commissioners have been granted immunity, which was absent in previous laws.

India is a democracy, but a prime example of how it is being transformed into a dictatorship is the legal changes made in the Election Commission. Provisions regarding the Election Commission are laid out in Articles 324 to 329 of the Constitution, which also ensure that it operates independently and autonomously. However, the government of Narendra Modi, who was once an RSS pracharak, conspired to bring the Election Commission under its control in 2023.

The current uproar regarding the Election Commission has one significant issue, which is the reform made in the law in 2023. There is a law called ‘The Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023.’ This law was passed by the Parliament of India. It replaces the old Election Commission Act, 1991. Its new provisions determine how the top election officials are selected, what salaries they receive, and what protections they have.

The two major reforms made in the old law pertain to how the election commissioners will be selected and who will make the selection. Under this reform of 2023, there is a committee that selects the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and the Election Commissioners (ECs). The committee includes the Prime Minister, a central cabinet minister, and the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha. What was it before?

In the earlier 1991 law, the selection committee included the Chief Justice of India (CJI), the Prime Minister, and the leader of the opposition. However, under the 2023 legal amendment, the Chief Justice was removed and replaced by a cabinet minister.

This means that the government will decide who the election commissioners will be, as there will only be one opposition leader and two members from the government in the selection committee. This means that the selection of the election commissioner will be dictated by the government, which is outright dictatorship.

Additionally, a search committee is formed to find names for the commissioners, which then informs the selection committee. This search committee, chaired by the cabinet secretary, prepares a shortlist of names to present to the main selection committee. Here too, it is the government that is in control. This ensures that the government’s dictatorship is fully realized.

It was then decided how the election commissioners would receive legal protection. They were granted immunity, which was not present in the previous law. The Modi government's law states that the Chief Election Commissioner and the Election Commissioners will be protected from civil or criminal court actions for the performance of their official duties during their tenure. This means that they can do anything, and no legal action can be taken against them either during or after their tenure. Such a provision was not present in the earlier 1991 law.

Only after these reforms were the current three election commissioners appointed. Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar is acting arbitrarily and working on how the BJP can win every election. The secret to this is in the law made by the Narendra Modi government in 2023.

Now see how this law was passed in Parliament. The Rajya Sabha passed this law on December 12, 2023, despite strong opposition from the opposition parties. The Lok Sabha passed it on December 21, 2023 while the entire opposition was suspended from the House. This means that the opposition was not present in the House when this law was passed. This indicates that the entire law was passed in a dictatorial manner.

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar had said that there should be something like constitutional morality, but Narendra Modi has trampled it, ensuring that elections are merely nominal so that it can be claimed that there is democracy in India, but democracy is reduced to just a name, and this provision has been skillfully made.