New Delhi: The BJP on Tuesday dismissed Rahul Gandhi’s criticism of the appointment of the chief election commissioner and an election commissioner as “politically motivated” and accused him of undermining an elected government’s constitutional mandate through “malicious” judicial activism.
The BJP’s reaction came after the Congress leader said it was “disrespectful” and “discourteous” for the prime minister and home minister to have made a midnight decision to select the new CEC when the process of selection is being challenged in the Supreme Court.
The government has announced the appointment of Gyanesh Kumar as the new CEC and named IAS officer Vivek Joshi as an election commissioner. In the Monday meeting of the panel, which includes the PM, HM and the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Gandhi had presented a dissent note.
Hitting back, BJP’s IT department head Amit Malviya said Gandhi’s dissent on the appointment of the chief election commissioner (CEC) is not just politically motivated but also lacks merit.
He said on X, “It is an attempt to undermine the constitutional mandate of the elected government through malicious judicial activism. Additionally, it conveniently misreads and misinterprets the Supreme Court’s judgment on the CEC’s appointment.”
He noted that a five-judge Constitution bench had revised the process for appointing members of the Election Commission of India (ECI) in 2023, ruling that the President should appoint the CEC and election commissioners based on the recommendation of a committee comprising the PM, LoP in Lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of India.
However, the court clarified that this arrangement would remain in place only until Parliament enacted a law establishing a permanent mechanism, he added.
To determine the original intent of the Constitution’s framers, Malviya said the court had analysed the 1949 Constituent Assembly debates and noted that it the appointment process was left to Parliament’s discretion.
He said the President appointed the CEC and election commissioners solely on the prime minister’s recommendation before the ruling.
Malviya said, “Thus, the current appointment process is more structured, transparent, and inclusive, involving multiple stakeholders, including the Leader of the Opposition”.
The new law that governs the appointment process puts in place a search committee led by the law minister and two senior bureaucrats that shortlists five candidates. This list is then sent to a selection committee comprising the prime minister, the Leader of the Opposition, and a Union Cabinet Minister (in this case, the Home Minister), he added.
Attacking the Congress, he said the party and the Gandhis, in particular, should be the last to sermonise on the appointment of the CEC, given their record of “abusing the office, appointing pliant candidates, and later doling out political appointments to incumbents as a reward for their services after stepping down”.
He shared a list of several former CECs who were later given different positions or honoured with Padma awards by the then government.
Gandhi claimed that the Modi government violated the Supreme Court order by removing the chief justice of India from the committee. He said the government has exacerbated the concerns of hundreds of millions of voters over the integrity of our electoral process.
