NationalInterest : Third year trough for Modi 3.0. Restoring EC’s image should be the first priority.

ThePrint

Shekhar Gupta analyzes the political vulnerabilities facing Narendra Modi's third term, specifically focusing on the historical 'third-year

Key takeaways

• Gyanesh Kumar has become an 'unforgettable' figure due to recent controversies regarding his role as CEC.
• The 'third-year trap' is a recurring historical pattern in Indian politics, seen during the eras of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.

Main topics

• Election Commission integrity
• The third-year political trap

Notable quotes

I have to be practical.

Conclusion

The episode concludes that restoring institutional sanctity is vital f

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:09) If you promise you won't Google, I will ask you three questions. One, how many chief election commissioners or CECs preceded Gyanesh Kumar since Narendra Modi came to power in 2014? Second, can you recall the name of even one of them? Third, how many CECs can you remember beginning 1950 since the institution began? The answer to the first is eight. 8 CECs have served honorably and faded away in the Modi era across which BJP and NDA or BJP slash NDA as the BJP's own spokesperson acknowledged lost 20 elections, 20 state elections. The BJP was reduced to 240 in Lok Sabha in 2024. You would of course remember from the past, the third question, how many names do you remember overall in these 76 years? You would of course remember TN Session in the 90s for how he reinvented his institution, S.Y. Qureshi for being so active in civilized public debate, and probably Manohar Singh Gill. That's partly because he successfully took on Session's dictatorship with fellow election commissioner GVG Krishnamoorthy in 93-95, which paved the way for the principle of the three members being equal. Also, partly because Gill became a minister of state in Manmohan Singh's cabinet. The remaining 22 CECs quietly retired, their reputations mostly intact. As for the great institution they led, many enhanced it, hardly anybody hurt it. Even I, having covered politics and elections for nearly 50 years now, can only recall a handful of names. Some who I knew personally before they became CEC, when they were in service, and others I interacted with professionally. The first one I spoke with was R.K. Trivedi, who served 18 June 1982 to 31 December 1985. This was in the context of the disastrous election. Indira Gandhi forced on Assam in the face of a violent mask boycott that consumed 7,000 lives. In some of those constituencies, the candidate could not even cast his own vote. Why did he railroad an election like that? I asked Rivedi. I have to be practical was the short answer. It became a much quoted line afterwards. This long preamble, waiting 75 years backwards, is to put in perspective the fact that Gyanesh Kumar has now become the second most unforgettable among our 26 CECs. He obviously did not seek this fame, but he can't shake it off