On Tuesday, February 18, 2025, BJP criticized Rahul Gandhi's attack on the Chief Election Commissioner and appointment of an Election Commissioner as being "politically motivated" and accused him of employing "malicious" judicial activism to overrule the constitutional mandate of a democratically elected government.
After the Congress leader said that it was "disrespectful" and "discourteous" for the Prime Minister and Home Minister to have selected the new CEC at midnight when the selection process is being challenged in the Supreme Court, the BJP responded.
Now, the government appointed IAS officer Vivek Joshi as an Election Commissioner and Gyanesh Kumar as the next Chief Election Commissioner (CEC). At Monday, February 17, 2025's panel meeting attended by the Prime Minister, Home Minister, and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Mr. Gandhi had filed a dissenting letter.
The head of the BJP's IT department, Amit Malviya, responded by denouncing Mr. Gandhi's disagreement as being both politically motivated and lacking in substance.
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 in 2023, a five-judge Constitution bench had modified the process for appointing members of the Election Commission of India (ECI). According to the ruling, the President had to appoint the CEC and election commissioners on the recommendation of a committee that included the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and the Chief Justice of India.
However, the court reiterated that this settlement would hold valid only until and unless Parliament makes a law fixing a permanent institution for such appointments.
In order to comprehend the intent of the original framers of the Constitution, Malviya said that the court had perused the debates of the Constituent Assembly of 1949. The court observed that originally the process of appointment was left to Parliament's discretion.
He added that the President appointed the CEC and election commissioners in the past exclusively on the basis of the recommendation of the Prime Minister.
Mr. Malviya said, "Thus, the current appointment process is more structured, transparent, and inclusive, involving multiple stakeholders, including the Leader of the Opposition".
The new legislation that governs the appointment process sets up a search committee, headed by the law minister and two senior bureaucrats, to shortlist five candidates. The list is then sent to a selection committee, comprising the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, and a Union Cabinet Minister—here, the Home Minister.
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 gave a list of some of the former CECs who were subsequently appointed to other offices or awarded Padma by the earlier government.
Mr. Gandhi contended that the Modi government had breached the Supreme Court order by excluding the Chief Justice of India from the committee. He further stated that the government had escalated the apprehensions of crores of voters about the integrity of the electoral process.
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