Hindi English Translation || Editorial || Glaring omission: On the import of executive majority in ECI selection process

Glaring omission: On the import of executive majority in ECI selection process

The Government should have stayed true to apex court judgment on the ECI selection process

The Union government’s proposal to have a three-member selection panel (group, committee, council, commission, board) with a majority for the executive (कार्यकारी) for the appointment of members of the Election Commission may not subserve (help, assist, aid (to promote)) the objective (उद्देश्य, लक्ष्य) of protecting the poll watchdog’s (a person or organization that monitors/inspects/supervises others’ activities/conducts. inspector/supervisor, observer, ombudsman) independence. A Bill (A Bill is a draft statute that becomes law after it is passed. All legislative proposals are brought before Parliament in the forms of Bills (or) draft statute/law, proposed legislation, proposal (presented to parliament/congress/council for discussion)) introduced in the Rajya Sabha says the committee will consist of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and a Union Cabinet Minister. This runs counter to a recent judgment of a Constitution Bench (संविधान पीठ) that envisaged (परिकल्पना करना, कल्पना करना) an independent (स्वतंत्र, स्वशासन) selection committee that included the Chief Justice of India. The judgment was also in line with (in accordance with, in agreement with, in tune with) the recommendations of the Dinesh Goswami Committee in 1990 and the Justice Tarkunde Committee in 1975 (In 1974, Jayaprakash Narayan, on behalf of Citizen for Democracy constituted a Committee under the Chairmanship of Justice V.M. Tarkunde, to review the present electoral system and to suggest suitable electoral reforms. The Committee made the following recommendation: a) The Election Commission should be appointed by the President on the advice of a Committee consisting of the PM, the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of India. b) The Committee recommended the formation of Voter’s Council in as many constituencies as possible, which can help in free and fair election. c) The Election Commission should be a three-member body. d) The minimum age for voting should be 18 years). It is true that the Court said that its order would hold good (hold true, remain true, remain valid, to be applicable, to be valid) only until Parliament made a law as envisaged in the Constitution (body of law; system of rules; regulations, fundamental principles, charter). However, for the government to retain an executive majority in the selection process amounts to disregarding (अवहेलना करना) the spirit (real/true meaning, true intention, essence, substance) of the Court’s recommendations. An argument could be made that the CJI’s presence (उपस्थिति) in the process could provide pre-emptive (preventive, precautionary, protective) legitimacy (वैधता, असलियत) to appointments and affect judicial scrutiny (जांच, निरीक्षण) of errors or infirmity (दुर्बलता) in the selections. Yet, when weighed against the fact that (तथ्य यह है कि) the ECI is a constitutional (संवैधानिक) body that not only conducts elections but also renders (प्रदान करना) a quasi-judicial (relating to the actions by any non-judicial body or government entity in which there are hearings, orders, judgements and other activities similar to those conducted by courts) role, the need for a selection process that embodies (include, consolidate, encompass, assimilate, integrate) insulation (protection, shelter, shield) from executive preponderance (dominance, ascendancy, leadership, mastery, supremacy, control, sway, power) makes sense.

A non-partisan (unbiased, unprejudiced, impartial, disinterested, neutral, fair-minded, even-handed, non-discriminatory) and independent ECI is a sine qua non (essential condition; literally means “without which not” in Latin) for the robustness (strongness, strength, power) of electoral democracy. The Election Commission of India has played a seminal (pioneering, influential, innovative, major, important) role in the periodic (regular, frequent, repeated, cyclical, sporadic, recurrent) conduct of elections, which have only seen greater participation from the electorate (all the people who entitled to vote in an election) because of the largely free, fair (just, equitable, fair-minded, upright, trustworthy) and convenient nature of the process. Yet, there are misgivings (doubt, qualm, distrust, mistrust, suspicion, apprehension, lack of faith/confidence). In the run-up to (a period of time just before an important event) the 2019 general election, for example, the announcement of elections was delayed for a month between February and March, allowing the government to inaugurate many projects. The Model Code of Conduct was unevenly (unequally, differently, lopsidedly, asymmetrically, oppositely) implemented, with the ruling party receiving favourable (advantageous, beneficial, suitable, helpful, convenient) treatment by the ECI, leading to (cause, result in, bring about, bring on, give rise to, produce) dissent by one of the commissioners. The independent V-Dem Institute in Sweden, which compares democracies worldwide, has downgraded (lower, reduce, minimize) India to an “electoral autocracy (dictatorship, monocracy, authoritarianism, tyranny, totalitarianism, despotism)”, citing the loss in autonomy (independence, freedom (from external control/influence); self-determination) of the ECI. With the next Lok Sabha election just months away, it should have been incumbent on (binding, obligatory, mandatory, necessary, compulsory, imperative) the government to stay true to the Constitution Bench’s judgment and retain its recommendations in the Bill. It is for the Opposition now to ensure that the Bill is discussed and modified.

Courtesy: The Hindu

Important Word List With Meaning

1.glaring (adjective)

Hindi Meaning - स्पष्ट, प्रकट
English Meaning - evident, flagrant, blatant, obvious.

2.the executive (noun)

Hindi Meaning - कार्यकारी
English Meaning - the executive is a branch of government which enforces the law as written by the legislature and interpreted by the judiciary.

3.objective (noun)

Hindi Meaning - उद्देश्य, लक्ष्य
English Meaning - aim, intention, purpose.

4.Constitution Bench (noun)

Hindi Meaning - संविधान पीठ
English Meaning - a bench of the Supreme Court having five or more judges on it. These benches are not a routine phenomenon. Constitution Benches are exceptions, set up only if some circumstances exist).

5.envisage (verb)

Hindi Meaning - परिकल्पना करना, कल्पना करना
English Meaning - conceive, imagine, envision, think, perceive, apprehend.

6.independent (adjective)

Hindi Meaning - स्वतंत्र, स्वशासन
English Meaning - self-governing, autonomous, non-aligned.

7.The Constitution of India (noun)

Hindi Meaning - भारत का संविधान
English Meaning - India, also known as Bharat, is a Union of States. It is a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic with a parliamentary system of government. The Republic is governed in terms of the Constitution of India which was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26th November, 1949 and came into force on 26th January, 1950.

8.presence (noun)

Hindi Meaning - उपस्थिति
English Meaning - the condition of being present; existence, appearance.

9.legitimacy (noun)

Hindi Meaning - वैधता, असलियत
English Meaning - reasonableness, justification, validity.

10.scrutiny (noun)

Hindi Meaning - जांच, निरीक्षण
English Meaning - examination, inspection, investigation.

11.disregard (verb)

Hindi Meaning - अवहेलना करना
English Meaning - ignore, pay no attention to, pay no heed to, reject, deny, overlook, dismiss, shrug off, set aside.

12.infirmity (noun)

Hindi Meaning - दुर्बलता
English Meaning - weakness, feebleness, impairment; unsteadiness, hesitation, instability.

13.the fact that (phrase)

Hindi Meaning - तथ्य यह है कि
English Meaning - used to refer to a specific situation under consideration/discussion.

14.constitutional (adjective)

Hindi Meaning - संवैधानिक
English Meaning - relating to the Constitution; legitimate, legal, lawful.

15.render (verb)

Hindi Meaning - प्रदान करना
English Meaning - perform, display, act, play, contribute, represent.

16.omission (noun)

English Meaning - deletion, elimination, exclusion, erasure, non-inclusion, negligence, neglect, oversight.

17.import (noun)

English Meaning - importance, significance, consequence, weight; message, meaning, essence. substance.

18.panel (noun)

English Meaning - group, committee, council, commission, board.

19.subserve (verb)

English Meaning - help, assist, aid (to promote).

20.watchdog (noun)

English Meaning - a person or organization that monitors/inspects/supervises others’ activities/conducts. inspector/supervisor, observer, ombudsman.

21.Bill (noun)

English Meaning - A Bill is a draft statute that becomes law after it is passed. All legislative proposals are brought before Parliament in the forms of Bills (or) draft statute/law, proposed legislation, proposal (presented to parliament/congress/council for discussion).

22.run counter to (phrase)

English Meaning - contradict, conflict with, disagree with, be inconsistent with; to have an opposite effect.

23.bench (noun)

English Meaning - a court of law with a number of judges.

24.Division Bench (noun)

English Meaning - a bench of two or three judges is called a division bench.

25.in line with (phrase)

English Meaning - in accordance with, in agreement with, in tune with.

26.Dinesh Goswami Committee on Electoral Reforms, 1990 (noun)

English Meaning - This committee was set up to examine some of the suggestions made by an inter-political party meeting convened under the chairmanship of former Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh on January 9, 1990. Chaired by the then Law Minister, Dinesh Goswami, this committee gave its recommendations on a broad range of topics, such as the constitution of the Election Commission, securing its independence and appropriate management of electoral rolls, among other things.

27.Justice Tarkunde Committee, 1975 (noun)

English Meaning - In 1974, Jayaprakash Narayan, on behalf of Citizen for Democracy constituted a Committee under the Chairmanship of Justice V.M. Tarkunde, to review the present electoral system and to suggest suitable electoral reforms. The Committee made the following recommendation: a) The Election Commission should be appointed by the President on the advice of a Committee consisting of the PM, the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of India. b) The Committee recommended the formation of Voter’s Council in as many constituencies as possible, which can help in free and fair election. c) The Election Commission should be a three-member body. d) The minimum age for voting should be 18 years.

28.hold good (phrase)

English Meaning - hold true, remain true, remain valid, to be applicable, to be valid.

29.constitution (noun)

English Meaning - body of law; system of rules; regulations, fundamental principles, charter.

30.amount to (verb)

English Meaning - be equal to, be equivalent to, be tantamount to, represent.

31.spirit (noun)

English Meaning - real/true meaning, true intention, essence, substance.

32.pre-emptive (adjective)

English Meaning - preventive, precautionary, protective.

33.weigh against (phrasal verb)

English Meaning - compare with, evaluate, examine, juxtapose with, place side by side.

34.constitutional body (noun)

English Meaning - a body or institute which is established by the Constitution of India. A Constitutional body has either complete independence or functional independence when discharging their constitutional obligations.

35.quasi-judicial (adjective)

English Meaning - relating to the actions by any non-judicial body or government entity in which there are hearings, orders, judgements and other activities similar to those conducted by courts.

36.embody (verb)

English Meaning - include, consolidate, encompass, assimilate, integrate.

37.insulation (noun)

English Meaning - protection, shelter, shield.

38.preponderance (noun)

English Meaning - dominance, ascendancy, leadership, mastery, supremacy, control, sway, power.

39.make sense (phrase)

English Meaning - be justifiable, be practicable, be clear, be understandable.

40.non-partisan (adjective)

English Meaning - unbiased, unprejudiced, impartial, disinterested, neutral, fair-minded, even-handed, non-discriminatory.

41.sine qua non (noun)

English Meaning - essential condition; literally means “without which not” in Latin.

42.robustness (noun)

English Meaning - strongness, strength, power.

43.electoral democracy (noun)

English Meaning - it describes a democratic government based on a system that enables all citizens to select one candidate from a list of competitors for political office. The process is called an election. Each citizen becomes a voter who casts a secret ballot with their choices.

44.play a part/role (phrase)

English Meaning - contribute to, be instrumental in, be a factor in.

45.seminal (adjective)

English Meaning - pioneering, influential, innovative, major, important.

46.periodic (adjective)

English Meaning - regular, frequent, repeated, cyclical, sporadic, recurrent.

47.participation (noun)

English Meaning - engagement, involvement, taking part, contribution.

48.electorate (noun)

English Meaning - all the people who entitled to vote in an election.

49.fair (adjective)

English Meaning - just, equitable, fair-minded, upright, trustworthy.

50.misgiving (noun)

English Meaning - doubt, qualm, distrust, mistrust, suspicion, apprehension, lack of faith/confidence.

51.run-up to (noun)

English Meaning - a period of time just before an important event.

52.Model Code of Conduct (MCC) (noun)

English Meaning - a set of guidelines issued by the Election Commission of India for conduct of political parties and candidates during elections.

53.unevenly (adverb)

English Meaning - unequally, differently, lopsidedly, asymmetrically, oppositely.

54.favourable (adjective)

English Meaning - advantageous, beneficial, suitable, helpful, convenient.

55.lead to (verb)

English Meaning - cause, result in, bring about, bring on, give rise to, produce.

56.dissent (noun)

English Meaning - disagreement, difference of opinion, opposition.

57.V-Dem Institute (or) Varieties of Democracy project (V-DEM) (noun)

English Meaning - an independent research institute founded in 2014 and is funded by a number of government organizations, World Bank and several research institutions. The headquarters of the project is based at the department of political science, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) is a new approach to conceptualizing and measuring democracy. We provide a multidimensional and disaggregated dataset that reflects the complexity of the concept of democracy as a system of rule that goes beyond the simple presence of elections. The V-Dem project distinguishes between five high-level principles of democracy: electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, and egalitarian, and collects data to measure these principles.

58.downgrade (verb)

English Meaning - lower, reduce, minimize.

59.autocracy (noun)

English Meaning - dictatorship, monocracy, authoritarianism, tyranny, totalitarianism, despotism.

60.cite (verb)

English Meaning - refer to, adduce, invoke, point to, mention.

61.autonomy (noun)

English Meaning - independence, freedom (from external control/influence); self-determination.

62.incumbent on (adjective)

English Meaning - binding, obligatory, mandatory, necessary, compulsory, imperative.