The sudden and unexpected resignation of Arun Goel, Election Commissioner (EC), a few days before the announcement of the Lok Sabha election, created a kind of suspicion in the minds of the people. As the EC did not explain his resignation, people made different speculations. Some sources have pointed out apparent differences between the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar and the EC during their West Bengal visit to oversee the preparations for the Lok Sabha election. Lack of transparency in the functioning of the EC, the body that oversees the whole election process, is not good for the health of democracy.

Some people have tried to link the resignation of Arun Goel with a statement of the BJP MP Anant Kumar of Karnataka. It was reported in the media that he said at a party rally in Siddapur in Uttara Kannada district that the BJP would need a two-thirds majority in the Parliament to "change" the Constitution of India. The BJP, however, distanced from the controversial remark and dubbed Hegde's remark as his personal opinion and has even sought clarification from him.

Responding to Hegde's statement, Congress leader P Chidambaram said that members like Hegde spill the beans and quickly deny their words. He said this is an "old ploy". The purpose is achieved, and the RSS/BJP cadres are enthused that the BJP continues to nurture the idea of amending the Constitution, Chidambaram said. "If the Constitution is amended according to the RSS/BJP agenda, that will be the end of parliamentary democracy, federalism, rights of the minorities, and the English language being one of the two official languages," he claimed.

Some people believe that Arun Goel could have been under pressure to compromise in the conduct of elections, which could be the reason for his resignation. To avert suspicion of the Election Commission and the government, Arun Goel should tell the people of India the reason for his resignation. People have a right to know it, as they are going to decide who should rule them for the next five years.

The reaction of Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi points to suspicion regarding Arun Goel's resignation. "He (Goel) is the one who, within 24 hours of his (premature) retirement, was made EC by the BJP government... What kind of manipulation did the BJP ask to do in the elections that their own man could not do and resigned from such a high post?" she said, according to The Telegraph.

According to renowned journalist Shri Shravan Garg, Arun Goel's sudden resignation can adversely affect the morale of the Election Commission officers and their supporting staff. The Election Commission is a big organization with about 600 officers in its Delhi office and many officers at the state and district levels. Hence, the government must clarify its stand on Arun Goel's resignation.

Already, there is doubt in people's minds about the Election Commission's impartiality and the possibility of tampering with electronic voting machines (EVMs) to manipulate election results. For over eight months, the Election Commission has not given time to the opposition parties of INDIA for a meeting with the EC to convey their reservations and views about using EVMs. As an independent and impartial body entrusted with the great responsibility of conducting elections to the parliament and state assemblies, the EC has to listen to the views of opposition parties regarding a crucial issue like the use of EVMs.

Another reason for the erosion of faith in the impartiality of the EC is its conduct during the last five years. The opposition parties have alleged that the election schedule was extended so that the PM could travel from one state to another for electioneering and his party workers could move from one place to another for election work. In August 2020, former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa resigned. It was reported in the media that he had given dissenting views when the poll body took a decision whether or not to provide a "clean chit" to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for speeches violating the model code of conduct ahead of the previous Lok Sabha elections. After Lavasa's resignation, his family, including his wife Novel Lavasa, came under the scrutiny of the Income Tax Department for alleged discrepancies. The department also surveyed Nourish Organic Food, where his son is a director.

It appears that Lavasa was punished for being honest and an impartial referee. "There is a price for honesty as for everything else in life. Being prepared to pay that price, directly or by way of collateral damage, is part of the honest act," he wrote in the Indian Express in December 2019, three months before his resignation.

The recent law passed by the Parliament that favours the Central government in appointing the members of the EC is another reason for reducing people's faith in the EC's fairness. According to the Supreme Court verdict, the members of the EC have to be appointed by the President of India on the advice of a panel that includes the prime minister, leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha or leader of the largest party in the Lok Sabha and the chief justice of India. As per the law passed by the BJP government, the Chief Justice of India is replaced by a Union cabinet minister. The government can appoint individuals loyal to the government and the ruling party.

In this context, it is pertinent to quote the allegation of the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut that the Election Commission has become an "extended branch of the BJP". It is not the same Election Commission that it was during TN Seshan's time, which functioned as a watchdog over elections and remained impartial, he claimed.

According to media reports, the two vacant posts of the Election Commission will be filled by March 15 following the process prescribed in the new law. The government must protect the EC's image as an independent and impartial body. In the same way, the EC must function so that there is no scope for suspecting its fairness.

Besides an impartial and independent body to oversee elections, there should be other conditions for free and fair elections. One among them is that voters should have access to reliable information. The recent verdict of the Supreme Court of India that directed the State Bank of India (SBI) to disclose details of the electoral bonds scheme by March 13, 2024, is related to voters' right to have information. In a landmark verdict on February 15, the court scrapped the electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional. It said that anonymous electoral bonds violate the right to information and Article 19(1)(a).

Unfortunately, the SBI, instead of disclosing the details, approached the SC two days before the deadline for an extension up to the end of June 2024. By this time, the Lok Sabha elections would be over, and the new government would be taking charge. On March 11, the SC turned down the request of SBI and ordered that the bank share the required information with the Election Commission of India by March 12. The poll body was asked to publish the details on its website by 5 pm on Friday, March 15 2024. The SC also warned that it would initiate contempt proceedings against the SBI if it didn't comply with the court order by March 12. The SC came down heavily on the SBI for "wilful disobedience" of last month's order.

The SBI's response indicates that the ruling party doesn't want transparency in the election process. The reasons put forward by the SBI before the highest court of India were nothing but puerile. One wonders how a country's premier bank could make such lame excuses. How could a government that wants to make India a Vishwa Guru present itself as a laughing stock before the world? The ruling dispensation has to remember what Abraham Lincoln said many years ago, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time."

In a democracy, the media is termed the fourth estate or the fourth pillar of democracy, as it plays a crucial role in making unbiased information available to the public. Unfortunately, in India, most of the media has become the government's propaganda machinery, so much so that it is nicknamed Godi Media. When it is asked to bend, it crawls. As per the 2023 report by global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), India was ranked 161st out of 180 countries in press freedom.

Another condition for free and fair elections is the availability of a level playing ground for all players, especially all political parties. The Electoral Bonds scheme enormously favoured the ruling BJP. Out of Rs. 12,000 crores received by all political parties together till the end of the financial year 2022-23, the ruling BJP garnered the lion's share of 55%, whereas the main opposition party, Congress, got a mere 9.3%. The BJP, till March 2023, received Rs. 6,566.11 crores, while the Congress got only Rs. 1,123.29 crores.

The reliability of the voting and counting process is another condition of free and fair elections. There have been various complaints about using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). The most important one is "due to absence of end-to-end (E2E) verifiability, the present EVM system is not verifiable, and therefore is unfit for democratic elections". Though VVPAT is installed in every EVM, not even one paper slip is counted and matched to verify or audit the votes polled and votes counted before making the results public, which is another allegation.

According to the V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) report 2024, India dropped to electoral autocracy in 2018 and remained in this category until the end of 2023. The report also said India was among 18 countries where the indicators for free and fair elections deteriorated substantially. In this context, civil society and the opposition political parties have to pressure the EC to conduct elections fairly without succumbing to the pressures of the ruling party.