The many varied reactions to the civil war in the Election Commission were largely a function of the political lens that the matter was being viewed through. Whatever the individual view, everyone seemed to suggest that either one or the other or both the election commissioners in question were acting in a partisan manner at the behest of a major political party.

That such a situation actually came to pass in a supposedly neutral constitutional body, manned by supposedly “neutral” retired bureaucrats, was shocking to many observers. Was the famous steel frame of the Indian bureaucracy finally breaking apart at the altar of political partisanship and expedience?

The issue is somewhat different. The famous steel frame of the Indian civil services has always been superb at serving its political masters with that great quality of malleability. To be perfectly fair to the bureaucracy, this malleability is built into its very foundation and is not something which was contracted externally at any point in time. The steel frame, modelled on its counterpart in Britain, was always meant to implement the decisions made by the political class, and not take independent decisions.

The political process has, of course, cultivated a system of patronage which has rewarded favourite civil servants with plum postings during their career, and even took care of life after retirement, either in various constitutional bodies (like the EC) or in plush Raj Bhavans. Nothing wrong with that, it’s been happening since 1947.

But why, you might ask, the great furore now, and not at other earlier instances of perceived partisanship and patronage? Could it be because the EC, unlike other institutions of the state, has been a shining example of neutrality and manned by persons who have always been viewed as completely unpartisan by all sections of the polity? Not really. T.N. Seshan, the man who first flaunted the CEC’s independence, flirted with politics after his stint as CEC. M.S. Gill joined active politics after his stint as CEC. J.M. Lyngdoh was viewed by Narendra Modi and the rightwing as biased. Much before Seshan brought the EC into the public domain, a retiring CEC was appointed as governor. Now, it’s perfectly reasonable to assume that all these gentlemen were very fair when they were CECs, but it is also important to be seen to be neutral — something which hasn’t always happened and something which is rankling many in the current controversy.

... contd.