Breaking his silence for the first time since the BJP raised objections to Navin Chawla’s presence on the Election Commission, Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami has said that the ECs need to have broader acceptance and the process of their appointment needs to be bipartisan.

In a recorded interview to The Sunday Express, Gopalaswami said, “The appointments (to the post of Election Commissioners) should have across-the-board acceptance than what we have now...The decision-making process (that leads to the appointment of the members of the Commission) has to be bipartisan.”

The Election Commissioners are appointed by the President of India on the advice of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet.

“My predecessor (B B Tandon) had already made his view clear,” said Gopalaswami, referring to a proposal to insulate the ECs’ appointment from politics. According to this proposal, which is pending before the Government, the Leader of the Opposition and the Chief Justice of India or a Supreme Court judge should be included in the panel that will have the Prime Minister and the Law Minister.

As of now, there is no consultative process behind the ECs’ appointments — it’s decided between the Law Minister and the Prime Minister with the President notifying the appointment.

“I favour the model used by the National Human Rights Commission over the one used for the EC,” said Gopalaswami. In the NHRC model, the Leader of the Opposition is also one of the members in the selection committee along with the PM, the Speaker and the Home Minister.

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