Need mutual respect, not pride & prejudice

The Supreme Court hit the nail on the head while dismissing the Andhra Pradesh government’s plea challenging the State Election Commissioner (SEC) Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar’s move to hold panchayat elections next month, when it observed that “ego problems between two authorities are causing all this lawlessness”.

To the uninitiated, the elections were deferred indefinitely midway in March last by the SEC. His reasoning that pressing ahead could result in the rapid spread of coronavirus cannot be faulted but his alleged unilateral approach ruffled the feathers of the government, which sought to oust him out of office suspecting him to be acting at the behest of the opposition TDP.

Several legal battles later, fast forward to the present. The SEC, just before his retirement this March-end, appears to be in a tearing hurry to hold the polls. He is well within his rights to go ahead as the apex court itself has held, but why is he oblivious to the ongoing vaccination drive? With lakhs of frontline workers, including police personnel, set to be vaccinated, the government finds itself in a spot in charting a roadmap for ensuring the smooth conduct of elections and vaccination at the same time.

It was surprising that the court did not deem it fit to examine this aspect and instead, went by the letter of the law. It would only be fair to ask the SEC why he couldn’t wait until the vaccination drive ends. The state government has rightly sought the Centre’s guidance to proceed further to conduct the elections in four phases from February 9 to 21.

If we observe the sequence of events, it is crystal clear that the SEC and the government are locked in an ego battle and none can claim the moral high ground. Their conduct—first, the government in March last and now, the SEC—has set a bad precedent and damaged the credibility of both the institutions. It is regrettable that government officers and police personnel are forced to bear the brunt of this unsavoury battle. At least now, the SEC and the government should set aside their pride and prejudice and work together with mutual respect.