Dear reader,
“Free, fair, popular, and credible elections are a cornerstone, indeed the lifeblood, of democracy. [Sukumar] Sen, by seamlessly conducting the first two general elections, aided India’s transition from a Crown colony to a sovereign Democratic Republic in practical terms,” said Pranab Mukherjee, former President of India, delivering the first Sukumar Sen Memorial Lecture organised by the Election Commission of India on January 23, 2020, in New Delhi’s Pravasi Bhartiya Kendra auditorium.
Sukumar Sen was a Bengali mathematician-turned-civil servant. He was in charge of conducting India’s first-ever general election and was the country’s first Chief Election Commissioner. His task was formidable. The election was held in 68 phases, from October 25, 1951, to February 21, 1952. There were over 17 crore registered voters, of which more than 10 crore people cast their votes. The world doubted India’s ability to pull this off. As S.Y. Quraishi, former Chief Election Commissioner of India, noted, the task was “deemed insurmountable in the 1950s by most observers and experts”.
But Sen and his team pulled off the impossible, surprising the world. Sen faced multiple challenges, including demographic, geographic, political, economic, and even psychosocial issues. Historian Ramachandra Guha, in his book India After Gandhi, writes about a curious challenge Sen faced: “The diffidence of many women in northern India to give their own names, instead of which they wished to register themselves as A’s mother or B’s wife. Sen was outraged by this practice, a ‘curious senseless relic of the past’, and directed his officials to correct the rolls by inserting the names of the women ‘in the place of mere descriptions of such voters’.”
Sen was formidable. Nothing stood between him and a fair, transparent election. Several reports vouch for the impartiality, sharp insight, and intuition that marked Sen’s service. Even though Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was a little impatient and wanted to wrap up the election quickly, Sen wanted Nehru to be “patient”.
Such was India’s success with its first election that another budding democracy, Sudan, invited Sen to conduct its first parliamentary elections in 1953. It is difficult to imagine in today’s world that another country’s citizen, particularly an electoral officer, could run the parliamentary elections of a country.
Sen spent some 14 months in Sudan, successfully organising the country’s polls. In February 1957, Shankar’s Weekly, edited by the legendary cartoonist K. Shankar Pillai, picked Sen as “The Man of the Week”.
Despite all this, Sen remained an anonymous public servant. “It is a pity we know so little about Sukumar Sen. He left no memoirs and few papers either,” writes Guha. This says a lot about the club he belonged to: officials who believed in nation-building, the ethos of democracy, and, most importantly, upholding the spirit of free and fair elections.
Gopalakrishna Gandhi, in his foreword to S.Y. Quraishi’s book, An Undocumented Wonder: The Making of the Great Indian Election, says: “I mean to diminish no individual, institution or phase in our history when I say that India is valued the world over for a great many things, but for three over all others: The Taj Mahal, Mahatma Gandhi, and electoral democracy.”
Is the essence of this electoral process now under threat? Recent events suggest that it is. The actions of the incumbent Election Commission of India (ECI) have tested the country’s democratic principles, with evidence of the ECI’s perceived bias and allegiance to the ruling party playing out in full public view.
Why is this a crisis? For many reasons.
Throughout history, the struggle for fair and transparent elections has been a recurring theme, often intertwined with broader movements for civil rights and political freedoms. The survival of transparent elections is paramount for the preservation and advancement of democracy around the globe. In an era marked by rising authoritarianism, disinformation, and attacks on democratic institutions, safeguarding the integrity of the electoral process is more crucial than ever.
Transparent elections ensure that the will of the people is accurately reflected. When citizens believe their voices have been heard and their votes counted, they are more likely to feel invested in the long-term success of their societies. A lack of transparency and credibility in elections can lead to widespread disillusionment, civil unrest, and the erosion of democratic norms. And when the legitimacy of electoral outcomes is called into question, it has a destabilising consequence on the entire nation.
It is thus imperative that governments, civil society organisations, and international bodies remain vigilant in their efforts to promote free, fair, and transparent elections. This includes strengthening legal frameworks, implementing robust electoral monitoring mechanisms, and empowering citizens with the knowledge and resources to hold their leaders accountable.
The ECI appears increasingly slack, and it is time we, the citizens, reminded it of its duty. The latest issue of Frontline does just that. We feature important essays on the subject, written by scholar Neera Chandhoke, former civil servant M.G. Devasahayam, Tamil Nadu’s IT Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, and columnist and writer Saba Naqvi.
Read the essays and write back with your thoughts on what ails the ECI.
Wishing you a meaningful week ahead,
For Frontline,
Jinoy Jose P.
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