An impeachment move with no winners

Impeachment motion against CEC: Exclusion of even a single eligible voter due to the way the SIR has been conducted would legitimise the criticism of this arbitrary and aggressive exercise

A win-win situation benefits all stakeholders even if a compromise is reached in search of a workable alternative. It could even be a way in which the winning side deludes the losing side to perceive its loss as a necessary price it paid for survival. 

The impeachment motion of the Opposition parties against the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) is one such example. It is a motion destined not to carry. Yet its prime movers may not see the loss as a defeat. But can the CEC see their loss as his victory?

The move of the Opposition parties is doubtlessly dramatic. However, the question that needs to be pondered by the well-wishers of the Election Commission of India (ECI) is what prompted them to don the gloves for a fight with no chance of victory. Perhaps, sometimes one fights not to win but to wound the opponent. And the troubling part is that political parties treat the CEC as an opponent.

The move to impeach the CEC is a first in the history of an institution that is supposed to be a vanguard of Indian electoral democracy. “India built many institutions after attaining freedom and adopting a Republican constitution…If anyone were to conduct an opinion poll on which of these institutions rendered the best service to Indian democracy with the highest degree of integrity, I have no doubt that the ECI will be our people’s first choice,” said Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the then Prime Minister at the ECI’s golden jubilee celebrations on January 17, 2001.

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