The epochal verdict in Bihar has overshadowed assessment of the institution that made it happen—the Election Commission. The absence of physical violence shouldn’t blind us to the casteist and communal nature of a long and bitter campaign. It was only at the end, when it could not turn away from the cow posters, that the EC stepped in, but it should have done so much earlier if only to show that “We, the People” are the custodians of this democracy, not those whose core competency lies in their ability to divide. As the lies, abuses and insinuations, cutting across party lines, raced through social and electronic media, the EC moved at glacial speed in stemming the flow. That the poor and illiterate were able to rise above the incendiary and the provocative only speaks for the wisdom of the grateful Bihari who, despite the blandishments, voted for the peaceable and the reasonable.
What Bihar (like Delhi before), where money flowed like water and mostly in vain, has showed is that the EC is clearly caught in a time warp on the model code of conduct. Parties and their patrons are finding newer ways of bucking its chartered accountancy-style approach to expenses, and politicians have mastered techniques of buying, paying and saying what they wish without fear of getting caught. We are, of course, grateful to the EC for the disappearance of posters on walls, the end of speeches before the lights go off, and the orderly air of registering, voting and counting, not to mention the fearlessness with which we can press the button on the EVM. But the time is ripe for further electoral reforms that can propel it into the rough and tumble of 21st century politics.
The Election Commission needs to revisit some of the checks and balances it has put in place. Many of them have become outdated and ineffective. All this reflected poorly on the Commission, which gave the impression of being weak or compromised. For all the good work it has done in the past in Bihar, the EC disappointed.
